The Aftermath, Book II: The Great War
by BolzanTheTwilightGuardian
Summary: Following Malefor's defeat, news about Malefor's return have already begun to spread. With their new family, Spyro, Cynder and Bolzan must fight for what they hold close to their hearts.
1. Chapter 1: A New Beginning

**This is the 2nd book to the Aftermath series, I hope you'll like it! Thanks for supporting my stories!**

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><p>Cynder and Spyro were in the nursery, curled up next to 4 eggs while Bolzan and Hunter were downstairs, patiently awaiting the hatching with Baero and Solaris..<p>

After Malefor's defeat, they headed back to the valley where Hunter welcomed them back in open arms. Shortly after, in the middle of the night, Cynder laid 4 eggs. The first egg was red with orange, flame-like markings. The second was a light blue egg with a few swirls of white mimicking a snowstorm. The third egg was obsidian-black with dark purple highlights and the final egg was dark grey, covered in broken streaks of lighter grey curling around the egg.

After Bolzan made sure the eggs were free of any darkness they might have picked up from Malefor, the waiting began…

Now, 1 and a half weeks later, which was about the time most eggs hatched, Spyro and Cynder were particularly excited. They spent their time around the eggs, willing them to hatch soon. Baero and Solaris thought this was fairly amusing but they still left them alone. After all, those eggs were really lucky to be even born, considering what Malefor put them through so, their excitement was well justified.

Bolzan returned a week after he left and was equally excited about the eggs hatching. Being a stranger to family life, he spent the first few days of living with Spyro and Cynder in relative isolation, being uncharacteristically shy around them. Eventually, he got used to it and became extremely close to them. Hunter, even though he was the leader of the Village, was also excited but he kept his composure much more than any of the dragons, mainly due to his maturity. He was older than the 3 dragons, after all.

That night, while Cynder and Spyro were sleeping next to the eggs, curled up with them, a small tap could be heard. The taps gained momentum and became louder, eventually waking Cynder up. Groggily, she looked around to locate the source of the sound. It took awhile for her to realize it was coming from a nearby source and she looked at the eggs.

The red egg had a small crack on it that was slowly spreading. Exhilarated, Cynder shouted hysterically.

"One of the eggs is hatching!"

Spyro jolted awake, panicking slightly as he scrambled to his feet and looked around the room quickly as if an apocalypse was happening right there. He quickly calmed down and noticed the crack on the red egg followed by a tapping sound. Bolzan was the first up, tripping over his own paws in his hurry. As he tumbled into the room, a slightly lopsided grin on his face, Hunter walked up, shaking his head in disapproval, a small grin on his face. He was followed closely behind by Solaris, who was equally happy that the eggs were hatching. Baero was the last to come up because of the size of his wings, which were above average. He was nonetheless glad that the eggs were hatching.

The nursery was fairly spacious, easily able to accommodate all of them and still feel comfortable. There was a changing table to one corner as well as a large playpen and a large cot big enough for 4 baby dragons was behind a special glass door that was soundproof to the outside world when only the babies were in there while, at the same time, allowing adults to hear the situation inside the room without entering and allowed sound both ways when an adult was with them, all courtesy of the Moles' expert craftsmanship. All the furniture had a dragon motif that didn't look intimidating. Rather, it looked quite cute and elegant with smooth flowing lines and soft, velvety mattresses and pillows and blankets. The playpen contained multiple toys provided by Terrador, Cyril, Volteer, Baero and Solaris. The nursery was, in all, the ideal place for a young dragon.

The cracks grew rapidly and Spyro peeked into it, trying to catch a glimpse of the newborn. He nearly got a nasty burn when a few sparks flew from the crack. He jerked his head backed and, as he was rubbing his eyes, the eggshell gave way, leaving a small baby dragon where the egg last stood. It had Spyro's body and muzzle but Cynder's wings. Its tail ended in a 3-pronged spear and its scales were a warm red. It had a light orange underbelly and had a pair of horns on its head. It looked curiously at Spyro with its bright yellow eyes as he tried to pick up the little dragon and, suddenly, it lashed out and bit Spyro's finger, holding on tightly, unwilling to let go. Spyro drew his paw back, the little dragon still attached and checked its gender.

"It's a feisty boy!" Spyro said as he tried to make it let go. The baby giggled slightly, still not letting go of Spyro's finger until Spyro was forced to gently pry open its jaws. He cradled the baby in his arm as he slowly opened its mouth with his other fingers. As soon as the baby let go, however, it began bawling loudly. Startled, he tried to calm the screaming infant before Cynder took him from Spyro, smiling cheekily. She gently rocked the dragon until it calmed down.

"So, what should we name him?" Cynder asked, cradling the little dragon who had now taken to playing with Cynder's wings.

"I kinda like the name Ferno; it feels really fitting for a feisty fire dragon, don't you think?" Spyro suggested, looking at Ferno fondly.

"Yeah, I like that name. Ferno it is!" Cynder proclaimed before suddenly stopping, looking shocked.

"What's the matter?" Spyro asked, mildly concerned.

"I have no idea how to diaper him…" Cynder said, embarrassed. Solaris laughed gently and placed her paw on Ferno.

"Come on, Cynder, I'll teach you and Spyro."

As Cynder nursed Ferno, the others all fussing over him, the second egg started to hatch, this time more slowly. Bolzan, being the closest to the eggs, heard this and turned around.

"Is another egg hatching, Bolzan?" Spyro asked, following his gaze.

"Yeah, I think so, I heard some tapping coming from them." Bolzan stepped closer to the eggs and saw small cracks on the light blue egg.

This time, the egg took longer to hatch and Cynder had just put Ferno to bed when the cracks grew at an alarming rate. Bolzan happened to be nearby when the cracks extended and when he turned to look at the eggs, he saw a small light blue dragon where the blue egg was, now in pieces around it.

It looked remarkably like Cynder except for the tip of its tail, which resembled Spyro's, and its wings didn't have metal tips. Its scales were light blue with faint, sky-blue streaks and its underbelly was white like freshly fallen snow along with 4 horns on its head. Bolzan walked over and the little dragon regarded him with its light blue, innocent eyes. He picked it up to check its gender but the little dragon sneezed, covering Bolzan's face in a fine frost. The baby giggled as Bolzan cleared the frost with his free right paw.

As he cleared the frost, he felt something touch his muzzle and sweep back and forth gently. He opened his eye and saw the infant gently stroking his muzzle, as if to help remove the frost.

"Aww… How sweet!" Bolzan jumped when he heard Cynder behind him, looking on admirably with Spyro and Hunter.

Bolzan smiled and nuzzled the baby, making it giggle slightly.

"It's a little girl."

"Why don't you name her?" Hunter said as he walked over to examine the infant along with Cynder and Spyro.

"Uh… How about Neve? It stands for snow and I feel that's what she is, a gentle snowflake."

"That's a nice name, Neve… Yeah, I like it!" Spyro said as Bolzan passed the infant to Cynder to be diapered and fed.

The next egg to hatch was the black egg although, it more or less didn't really hatch, it just crumbled around the baby inside. Cynder was in the nursery tending to Ferno and Neve when it happened. The eggshell collapsed to reveal the baby dragon. It had Spyro's muzzle shape and wings but Cynder's body and a tail that resembled a small scythe, with its slightly hooked tip. Its scales were jet-black and it had a deep purple underbelly. A dark grey insignia surrounded its right eye, serving as a sort of birthmark. Its eyes were dark grey and it immediately tried to hide amongst the blankets surrounding the eggs, diving into the folds. Cynder gently unfolded the blankets around the baby and lifted it up, cradling it in her left arm. The baby began crying almost immediately when Cynder picked it up. She checked its gender which was quite a chore, considering it kept squirming and curling up into a ball but, she eventually got it. Solaris was walking past the room when she looked in and saw Cynder struggling with the baby, she stepped in and helped Cynder hold the screaming infant.

"Well, is it a boy or a girl?" Solaris asked as she held the whimpering baby by its underarms.

"It's a really shy boy!" Cynder said, the little dragon still crying in Solaris' arms. Spyro stepped in at that time, wondering what could be crying that loudly. Solaris turned and saw Spyro and, flashing a warm smile, handed the baby to Spyro.

"It's your turn to learn, Spyro!"

"Learn wha… Really? Do I have to…?" He complained as he picked up the baby.

"Yes, you do." Spyro sighed, hanging his head dejectedly. The baby stopped crying shortly after Spyro finished diapering him and he handed the infant back to Cynder.

"Have you named him yet?" Spyro asked as Cynder nursed the infant.

"No, not yet, I was hoping you could help me." Cynder replied, the infant cradled in her arms.

"Go ahead, name him! I've named one of them, Bolzan's named one of them, and Hunter's probably naming the next so that leaves you, Cynder!" Spyro said cheerfully, kneeling in front of her.

"Alright then, how about Noctis? I mean, it was around midnight when he hatched."

"Alright, that's a nice name for him."

Shortly after, Hunter was in the nursery, looking at the infants' sleeping forms when he suddenly heard a loud crack. Pieces of egg shell landed near Hunter's feet. He suddenly felt something bump against his leg and he looked down.

He was greeted by the sight of a little grey dragon that had a large piece of egg shell on its head sitting beside his leg, looking slightly dazed. Apparently, it had bumped into Hunter's leg. It had light grey scales with a dark underbelly, Cynder's muzzle and body and Spyro's wings, its tail resembled a spearhead with 4 backward pointing hooks. As Hunter was about to pick the infant up, it suddenly got up and bolted away, running haphazardly around the nursery.

Hunter, afraid that it would injure itself, began chasing it around the nursery but the baby eluded him every time. It was all just a game to the baby, who was giggling as it cantered around the nursery. Eventually, Hunter gave up and, panting fairly heavily, he slumped onto the ground. The baby turned to look at Hunter and failed to see that it was about to crash into a wall. It hit the wall headfirst with a loud thud, causing the egg shell on its head to shatter. Hunter immediately rushed over to its side, concerned that it might have hurt itself. Thankfully, there weren't any injuries but the baby was crying fairly badly. Hunter lifted it up and rocked it gently, cooing. It eventually quietened down when Bolzan, Spyro and Cynder stepped into the nursery.

"I take it the last egg hatched?" Bolzan asked sleepily.

"Yes. And…" Hunter checked the gender of the baby, who was now sniffling softly.

"It's a girl! She is a handful; I had to chase her around the nursery before she accidently ran into a wall. She's alright, thankfully."

"OK the, what should we name her, Hunter?" Cynder asked as Hunter handed her the baby dragon.

"I feel Arashi would be an appropriate name for her, she really is like a storm!" Hunter laughed, tickling the baby on her muzzle causing her to burst out in laughter, playfully swiping at Hunter's finger.

"Nice, I like that name! Now, if you don't mind, I'll be going back to bed. Good night!" Bolzan said and left the nursery, with Hunter, leaving Spyro and Cynder in the nursery alone with their children.

As he walked towards his room after bidding Hunter farewell, Bolzan suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest, causing him to gasp and double over. Subconsciously, he knew what this meant, due to the fact that he still had a fragment of Malefor's power in his heart. This fragment instinctively alerted him to Malefor's actions and, even though he had never felt this sensation before, he knew what it meant.

Malefor would return.

He returned to the nursery where Spyro and Cynder had just put the children to bed and told them about the news. To his surprise, they took it in stride, saying that, since he wouldn't be coming back anytime soon, there was no use fretting over it. This also set Bolzan's mind at rest but deep down, he knew that they were afraid as well. True, he wouldn't come back for years but, in the end, he would still return.

But no matter what, they would be ready for him.


	2. Chapter 2: Lazarite Armor

Running through the seemingly never-ending cavern, Spyro felt his heart beating wildly in his chest as he dashed through the darkness, unsure if what he was running from but running regardless. Up ahead, he saw a light. It was the exit, finally! As he neared the exit, the cavern started to shake violently as if an earthquake had struck. Massive boulders cascaded in front of him, blocking his only way out and plunging him into total darkness. Spyro heard the _thing_ closing in, its claws clicking relentlessly on the stone floor. Spyro tried to blast it with fire but nothing came out, getting caught in his throat and causing him to cough clouds of smoke. His pursuer stopped abruptly and, just when Spyro thought it was going to run away, it pounced onto Spyro, knocking the wind out of him and pinning Spyro onto the floor. Unable to move and finding it hard to breathe, Spyro tried to look at the beast that had pounced on him but in the utter blackness, not even his sharp draconic eyesight could make out anything. The thing spoke.

"Wake up, Dad!" It called out in a girlish voice, full of excitement and enthusiasm.

Jolting awake, Spyro was startled to see Arashi and Neve on him, pressing onto his chest. He looked to his side and saw Ferno and Noctis on Cynder's.

"Wake up, sleepyhead! Wake up, wake up, wake up!" Arashi started jumping up and down on Spyro. He sat up when she stopped jumping and, yawning and looked at his daughters with a grin.

"Good morning to you too, kiddo!" He looked outside; it was a beautiful day with clear blue skies, the flowers nearby in full bloom, coloring the fields with shades of red, yellow and orange. The birds were chirping their morning song and butterflies were flitting through the blossoms. The river sparkled like sapphires in the bright morning sunshine as fish darted in schools along the river.

His morning peace was, once again, shattered by Arashi, who was extremely excited and hyper. Not that this was rare, of course. Neve, on the other hand, was an island of calm compared to Arashi, excitement also evident on her face.

Next to them, Cynder was also juggling her sons, Ferno almost as hyper as Arashi while Noctis, who was usually quite shy, was also extremely excited and they overwhelmed Cynder who had to capture them in her arms, laughing.

They calmed down slightly and looked expectantly into their parents' eyes, wondering if they remembered. Spyro turned to Cynder and they smiled before turning back to the kids. Ferno, who had lost her patience, immediately blurted out.

"Where are our presents?"

Spyro rubbed Ferno's head.

"Soon, kiddo. Breakfast first, then presents, okay?"

Arashi was down the steps faster than all of them and was followed closely by Ferno and Neve with Noctis tagging along behind. Cynder was also downstairs in the kitchen, cooking something delicious. Spyro came down last and walked into the kitchen, giving Cynder a quick peck on her cheek.

"Thanks, honey, but you're still not getting more bacon." Cynder laughed and playfully pushed a dejected looking Spyro out of the kitchen. He had barely taken his place at the table when his kids began bombarding him with questions about their gifts. He tried his best to answer them and was out of replies when Cynder walked in, carrying a large platter of eggs, bacon and pancakes. All thoughts about presents fled their mind when they saw the food.

As they ate, a knock came from the door.

"I'll get it!" Spyro stood up and, his mouth still containing rashers of bacon, opened the door.

"God, have you been starving yourself, Spyro?" An amused, teenaged voice said when the door was opened. Spyro blushed and swallowed his food before continuing to speak in a slightly hushed tone.

"Did you bring the gifts?"

"Of course! You didn't think I would forget, did you?"

Breathing a sigh of relief, Spyro welcomed Bolzan into the house. When the kids saw him, they jumped from the table and pounced onto him, knocking him onto the floor, laughing.

Remarkably, Bolzan had barely aged the past 10 years, still looking every bit the same young dragon he was all those years ago. He did look more mature, considering he was mentally the same age as Spyro and Cynder. Also, his control over his elements had increased by leaps and bounds, mastering Hellfire and Bifrost, a side effect of carrying a fragment of Malefor's heart within his own, as well as his own form of Shadow and Light, which he dubbed Twilight.

Spyro and Cynder had also gotten stronger over the years and were teaching their kids how to harness their own elements as well. They were loving parents and they loved their kids deeply and, although they often got onto their parents' nerves, Spyro and Cynder wouldn't want it any other way.

"Alright, kids, that's enough. Finish your food, its getting cold!"

"Alright, Mom…" They drawled, still wanting to know more about their presents from Bolzan who they were certain would reveal some secrets about their gifts. Bolzan got up and dusted himself off before turning to Spyro and Cynder, who were ushering their kids back to the table.

After breakfast, Spyro and Cynder brought their kids out of the house to give them their gifts. Bolzan had decided to stay behind and finish up any chores left in the house, in spite of Cynder's objections. He waved goodbye to them and they entered the forest together, into a deep, secluded portion of the forest.

A short while later, they came upon a clearing in the middle of the forest. It was a beautiful sight to behold, most of the floor was covered in white lilies and a majestic waterfall crashed into a pool nearby, flowing into a creek that snaked out of the clearing into the forest. However, this majestic sight couldn't impress the kids, who were so fixated on their gift that they didn't even spare a glance at their surroundings and kept pestering Spyro and Cynder about it.

Sighing, Spyro led them close to the waterfall and lay the bag he was carrying on the ground. They tried to catch a glimpse of what was in the bag but Spyro kept them at bay with his wings, blocking them from seeing their gifts. The sight of them jostling in a futile effort to look at their gift made Cynder snort with laughter.

"Come on, Dad, what is it?" Noctis whined as he and his siblings sat down, feeling slightly dejected.

"Is it something we all like?"

"Depends on what you _do _like." Spyro said as he turned around carrying 4 carved crystals of Lazarite.

"Is that it? A crystal?" Ferno questioned, disappointed at their gift. He was expecting something more practical or at least fun.

"These aren't ordinary crystals, they're made of Lazarite that was bonded to you at birth." Cynder explained as Spyro passed her a pair that resembled a squall of wind and an intricate snowflake while Spyro's crystals looked like a flickering flame and a crescent moon, both equally intricate.

"So?" Neve asked, curious at what that meant.

"It means that they'll take on the form of whatever you like." Spyro answered as he passed the fire-shaped crystal to Ferno, who turned it over and looked at it skeptically, and the crescent-shaped one to Noctis, who accepted it without comment. Cynder handed the crystalline snowflake to Neve, the young dragon's eyes sparkling at the intricacy of the snowflake, and the wind shaped crystal to Arashi who, admittedly, looked slightly disappointed.

"So, now what?" Ferno asked as he tried to find anything hidden on it.

"Close your eyes and hold it close. After that, its all automatic." Spyro said gently.

They closed their eyes and almost immediately felt a warmth in their paws. It was brief but comforting and when they opened their eyes, the crystal was gone.

Cynder grinned.

"Wow, they look great on you!"

"Huh? What looks…?" Neve was shocked to find a choker around her neck. She ran over to the creek and examined the reflection of the choker. It looked absolutely stunning. The choker was made of a shiny metal that glinted in the sunlight, highlighting every curve that was carved onto it. In the middle sat a blue, snowflake shaped gem that scintillated brilliantly when the light struck it.

"It's so pretty! Thanks, Mom!" Neve exclaimed as Cynder helped put it back onto her neck.

"Ooh, check out mine!" 2 new bracers, made of the same metal and carrying equally intricate carvings, were wrapped around Arashi's wrists. They were crafted to resemble a pair of tornadoes spiraling up her forearms and, right on the back of her paws, a crystal tornado was shimmering in the sun, its slightly opaque surface reflecting the sunlight.

"That's nothing, check mine out!" Ferno shouted as he showed off his new pauldron that was on his right shoulder. It was crafted to resemble 6 flaming blade, 3 pointing up and the remaining pointing in a fan-like shape downwards. A bright red ruby carved like a starburst of flame sat proudly in the middle, shimmering brightly.

"Wow, this is so cool! Thanks, Dad! Do you have one?" Noctis was beside himself with excitement as he examined his new chest plate. Made from the same metal, it boasted multiple streaks the criss-crossed in an intricate pattern with a crescent shaped piece of onyx in the middle.

"Hey, what about me? I helped too, you know!" Cynder mock pouted.

"Sorry, Mom, thanks for the gifts!" Ferno grinned when he suddenly felt something metallic touch his shoulder. He turned around and was greeted with the sight of a tinted visor on a draconic helmet. It looked positively scary and sent Ferno running into his mother's cover as he growled threateningly at the newcomer. The rest of them also clustered around Cynder out of fear when, suddenly, the metal-clad dragon guffawed loudly. The visor slid back into the helmet and Spyro's face peeked out of the helmet, grinning playfully.

"Dad! Don't scare us like that…" Neve groaned as she walked over to her father. His armor carried an air of respect and fear. It covered his entire body from head to tail and even the wings yet he didn't seem to have any problem walking as he padded over to his daughter. The orange crystal on his forehead was shaped like the sun with rays splaying outwards in a superimposed starburst pattern. His armor looked very bulky with individual pieces linked with chain that left no gaps between.

"Well, your armor will likely become like this one day, covering your entire body. Trust me, it's actually very comfortable, you hardly feel it!" Cynder said, now clad in her own Lazarite armor. Hers was a darker shade of grey and looked more organic than Spyro's as it seemed to be hinged rather than bound together. The same tinted visor covered her face and a piece of amethyst was on her chest, resembling a swirling whirlpool.

Their kids' jaws dropped when they saw their parents like that and looked expectedly at their own pieces, wondering what it would be like in a few years time. Abruptly, the pieces of armor vanished, causing them to panic a little.

Spyro laughed warmly and explained that the armor was hidden when they didn't need to use it so it wouldn't impede movement.

"Of course, you can control when it appears. Go ahead, try it!" Spyro willed his own armor away and called it back a few times in succession and Cynder's armor vanished, not reappearing. True enough, they could call it back and send it away easily. They spent some time playing in the fields and the creek before Cynder told them it was time to go home. As they walked through the forest, Cynder noticed that Spyro look disturbed and distressed, his eyes fixated on the route ahead. She nuzzled him and asked what was bothering him. It didn't take long to find out.

They were at the entrance of the same route they had entered and Arashi tried to dash back home but Spyro held her back and told them to lay low. Arashi was about to ask why when the side of the house facing them blew wide open and Bolzan catapulted out, hitting a tree nearby painfully, his face a mask of agony. There was a massive gash across his chest, deep enough to see a bit of bone, his coat in tatters. Bolzan panted heavily and turned to Spyro, mouthing some words.

"_Get away from here…"_

A second explosion rocked the ground and they saw Hunter jump out of the smoke, his left arm apparently broken as it hung limply by his side. A dark, shadowy figure pursued him and struck Hunter, sending him crashing into the ground where he lay still. Bolzan forced his heavy legs to move as he dashed to tackle the figure that was now standing over Hunter's body, ready to crush him with a massive claw.

Without any hesitation, Spyro ran into the open. When it didn't attack him, he motioned for his family to run away from the house. They ran in the general direction of the Dragon City when they heard loud thumping come from behind them. Spyro turned around and saw the thing chasing them. At such close proximity, Spyro recognized the face. The crimson eye, though new, was also faintly familiar.

"Eratos…"Spyro gasped and shouted to his family to takeoff.

"Get to Warfang!" Spyro also took to the air but Eratos grabbed his tail and slammed him painfully onto the ground, creating a large crater. Although he was certain his back wasn't broken, the pain kept him pinned to the ground.

"My, my, haven't you grown?" Eratos growled, as he padded over to Spyro's prone body.

"You…" Spyro couldn't muster the strength to say anymore.

"I'll take great pleasure in killing you as _painfully _as possible." The fact that Eratos kept a straight face when he said this only made it seem more frightening.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Spyro heard Bolzan shout, followed by Eratos roaring in pain as massive lances of black flame struck his back. Bolzan bit onto Eratos tail and pulled him away with astonishing strength. He caught a glimpse of Bolzan in his shadowy form, red sigils glowing brightly, before Cynder helped him up and they continued running, Spyro limping slightly as their kids waited slightly further ahead, their faces fearful.

Eratos turned towards Bolzan and, snarling, flicked his tail roughly, sending Bolzan flying. He landed near Hunter's foot, who was taking aim with a long metal bow shaped like a cross that seemed fused with his arm piece. A large opal shaped like a falcon in flight was on his pauldron along with 4 quivers, 2 crossed over his upper back and 2 on his lower back, each filled with multiple arrows. He had asked the Moles to make several specialized arrows for him and Bolzan taught him how to incorporate them into his Lazarite equipment.

"You alright?" Hunter asked, still aiming at Eratos who was now charging their way.

"Yeah..." Bolzan grimaced and tried to stand up but he just collapsed to the ground.

"Don't push yourself, you're really injured."

Hunter released the arrow and it split into 2, each of which further split in half. It was all over in a fraction of a second, causing a hailstorm of supersonic arrows flying towards Eratos. They struck, ripping Eratos' wing to shreds, rendering him incapable of flight. Hunter's Lazarite bow was a part of his arm armor and was capable of firing arrows at extremely high speeds. The armor was supporting his broken arm like a cast as he released multiple volleys of splitter arrows.

Eratos was undeterred and struck Hunter and Bolzan, sending them into the nearby forest. Then, he turned his attention towards his true quarry.

Further up, Spyro and Cynder were running with their kids, who were bombarding them with questions. He merely replied that he would tell them later, when they were safe. They came upon a cliff and took to the skies. They had flown a considerable distance when Cynder realised that Neve was nowhere to be found. She turned around and saw Neve looking uncertainly at the cliff and she remembered something.

"Honey, can you fly well yet?"

"NO!"


	3. Chapter 3: First Flight

Neve stood at the edge of the cliff looking at her parents and siblings fly away. Tears were forming at her eyes when her mother turned around and asked her if she could fly well.

"NO!" She replied, distraught. As Cynder flew back to pick Neve up, a loud thumping caused her to stiffen. She slowly turned around and saw a black dragon running towards her, his eyes telling her that she would do as prey. Neve hesitated and looked off the cliff, it was an extremely steep drop hundreds of meters that would definitely have killed her if she couldn't fly, which was not far from the truth…

"_Come on, you can do it, Neve! Just flap your wings a little more, that's it! Now…" Spyro was in the process of coaching his daughter how to fly and, evidently, she was having some trouble. Although she could take off and glide, she couldn't sustain flight for long periods of time._

_She fell face first onto the soft grass and tumbled a short distance, tears welling up in her eyes. Spyro rushed over, concerned._

"_Hey, kiddo, are you alright? You took a pretty bad fall there." Spyro said warmly as he helped her up, tears still forming at the corner of her eyes._

"_Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it soon…" Spyro tried comforting her as they walked back to the house. Neve was stubbornly silent on the way home, angry at herself and her father._

_Back at the clearing near their house, she saw her sibling flying in the air and felt the tears coming up again. Ferno spotted her and hovered in place, a slightly playful grin playing on his features._

"_What's the matter, still not flying yet? Maybe you should just give up before you make a fool of yourself!" Ferno teased playfully. Arashi and Noctis sniggered slightly and Cynder shot them an angry look._

"_Hey, honey, how was flying lesson today?" Cynder walked over and placed a gentle paw on Neve's shoulder, comforting her. However, Ferno's childish teasing was the last straw. She violently pushed her mother's paw off and shouted at them angrily, tears streaming down her eyes._

"_You don't even care! All of you just make fun of me when I can't fly well, I hate you!" Neve then turned around and ran into the forest again, crying as she sprinted through the forest, the evening sunlight shining through the gaps between the leaves adding a touch of sadness to the scene…_

Neve looked back at the dragon, which was closing in on her, and over the edge of the cliff with its lethal drop. She began sobbing as she tried to make an impossible choice. Cynder was still quite a distance away and even at full speed, it didn't look like she would make it in time.

_The sun had set and the forest was plunged into darkness. Neve, who had calmed down and was ready to go back, found that she was hopelessly lost in the forest, even with her night vision. She stumbled around randomly as she tried to get her bearings but nothing seemed familiar in this part of the forest. She suddenly heard a rustling above her and when she looked skywards; she caught a glimpse of her father, scanning the forest from high up._

_She tried to signal to him by shouting but to no avail. She chased her father's shadow until it suddenly veered away into an inaccessible part of the forest. Disheartened, she continued running through the forest, sobbing from the possibility that she might never make it back home. Abruptly, the ground stopped and she tumbled down a short hill into what felt like snow as it was powdery and slightly cold._

"_Funny, I don't think there should be snow now…" She thought to herself as she opened her eyes. Neve found herself in a field of crystalline flowers, each as intricate and delicate as the real thing. She turned around and saw a flowerless trail which, she deduced, was from her fall. She looked around for signs of life and she wiped her tears. This cleared up her vision considerably and she saw a dragon sitting in the middle of the field, his head placed over his paws on the ground._

"_Bolzan!"_

_The dragon lifted its head and turned towards the sound, its lips curling into a gentle smile._

"_Hey there, Neve, what are you doing here?"_

As Neve deliberated on what to do, she tripped on a tree root on the edge of the cliff and she fell off the edge.

_Bolzan sat there as he listened to Neve's story, tears falling anew from her eyes. He waited for her to finish before covering her with his wing, shielding Neve from the cold._

"_I admit, I don't understand how you feel right now but it seems to me that you had some problems with your parents, right?" Bolzan asked gently as he held her._

_Neve sniffled and nodded slightly._

"_Well, let me tell you this, I had a lot of trouble flying when I was your age as well." Bolzan said truthfully in an effort to comfort her._

"_Really? But you're one of the best fliers I've seen! Didn't your Mom and Dad help you?" Neve asked as she wiped her eyes with the back of her paw. She immediately regretted asking him this when she saw his eyes glaze over. Evidently she had hit a raw spot and was about to apologise when Bolzan placed a paw on her head and smiled ruefully._

"_My parents died when I was just a hatchling, Neve. I didn't have anyone to teach me how to be a dragon." Bolzan whispered, his eyes focused on something far away even though he was looking at her._

"_I had to learn how to do everything quickly or I'd be dead. Walking, eating, fighting, most of the normal stuff, I could do. However, I had a lot of trouble when it came to flying and, unlike you, I didn't have anyone to treat my injuries."_

_Neve kept quiet as she listened to his tale._

"_One day, I was being chased by hunters when I came upon a cliff. Being unable to fly, I was faced with 2 choices; slow, agonizing death at the hands of the hunters or a quick death by jumping off the cliff, which was extremely high up."_

"_So what did you do?" Neve blurted out, unable to contain her curiosity. A gust blew across the field, causing powdered crystals to fly off the surface of the flowers in a delicate dance. She sneezed and shivered slightly as Bolzan pulled her in closer with his wing. He smiled sadly._

"_Even at my young age, I could tell the better of the 2 choices and I jumped. I began panicking on my way down and flapped my wings hopelessly. After a while, I relaxed. If I was going to die, might as well be brave about it. I settled into a spread-eagled position and closed my eyes…"_

"_So what happened after that?"_

"_Obviously I didn't hit the ground, or I wouldn't be sitting here telling you this, would I?" Bolzan gave a light chuckle, his eyes brightening._

"_I felt the wind catch my wings at a slightly different angle and naturally tensed them up. At first, I thought nothing happened but when I didn't hit the ground, I opened my eyes. I found myself soaring across the tops of the trees, it was exhilarating, I can tell you that. After that, instinct kicked in and I finally got the gist of how to fly. It took me a near death experience to get airborne and, in a sick way, I'm glad for it." Bolzan's eyes twinkled as he recalled the moment._

"_What does that have to do with my problems?" Neve asked, genuinely confused._

"_All I'm saying is that you're lucky that you have your Mom and Dad to coach you in how to fly, you have your siblings who might be a handful but have your beast interests at heart, and you have me to talk to when you're down. I didn't have these "luxuries" when I was young and you should be happy for that." Bolzan explained, his voice shaking slightly. He recovered quickly and smiled at Neve._

"_Well, are you feeling better now?"_

_Neve nodded and stood up with Bolzan._

"_What's with these flowers?" Neve asked Bolzan as they were walking out of the field._

"_Oh, I like to make these gardens when I need to relax. Right now, I think these flowers are gracideas. Beautiful, aren't they?" Bolzan picked up one of the delicate blossoms and let crumble in his paw. As soon as that happened, the rest of the gracideas crumbled into dust that flew upwards towards the sky, twinkling like the stars on the moonless night. Bolzan sighed and smiled slightly._

"_Their first flight, such a sight to behold. Don't worry, Neve, I'm sure you'll fly soon, it just takes time. Now, let's get home, I'm starving!"_

_Back home, Neve got a good telling off from her parents while Bolzan stood there watching. She rightfully deserved it after giving them such a scare. She saw that her mother's eyes were red, as if she'd been crying, and immediately felt guilty that she had made her mother so sad. As punishment, she was sent to bed without dinner and she would do twice the amount of chores for a few days._

_When she entered her room, she was surprised to see her brother sitting on her bed. When Ferno saw his sister, he grinned guiltily._

"_Sorry, Sis…"_

_Neve walked over and gave him a friendly punch on his shoulder and grinned back._

"_Shut up, you big bully!" She replied light-heartedly._

Neve was panicking as she fell, flapping her wings chaotically when she remembered what Bolzan said. She relaxed and spread out her wings. Suddenly, she felt a slightly different wind and she tensed up and, when she opened her eyes, she was soaring high in the sky. She heard her mother cheering as she glided down to Cynder's level.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again!" Cynder said as Neve glided next to her. Neve looked sheepishly at her mother and apologised and they flew back to catch up with Spyro and her siblings.

Eratos cursed as he saw the dragons flying away, his own tattered wings useless for flight. He went into the forest and hacked at the bushes, looking for Bolzan and Hunter, wanting to rip them limb from limb. When he failed to find them, he cursed and heard Malefor's voice.

"No matter, our forces are stronger now, we shall have our revenge soon."

Eratos grinned and he created a portal to his lair from his dark fire.

"Yes, Master."


	4. Chapter 4: The Calm Before The Storm

After flying a considerable distance, they Spyro decided that they should rest and regain their strength before setting off again. They landed in a suitable clearing in the forest below them, the sun already beginning its slow descent. As Spyro scouted the area for any dangers, Cynder found the time to explain what was going on to the kids.

After the explanation, they remained silent for awhile, digesting the sudden influx of information in their innocent minds. Then, Noctis and Arashi padded over to Cynder and buried their faces in her chest. At first, Cynder was surprised by this act but when she heard light sobbing coming from them, she wrapped her wings around them protectively. Spyro returned just in time to see Cynder embracing them while Ferno and Neve sat there, eyes glazed over.

Spyro placed a paw on their shoulders and they turned to face him. Neve's eyes were filled with tears and Ferno looked plainly shocked at the news. Ferno looked Spyro with eyes that showed nothing but fear.

"Dad…Are we going to d-"

"No, Ferno, your mother and I will never let anything happen to all of you. I promise…"

Spyro felt something impact his chest and saw Neve clinging on, sobbing. She managed to look up at her father and, with great effort, managed to mutter something.

"I'm scared…"

By now, Ferno had also joined his sister in Spyro's arms, crying quietly. Spyro and Cynder held them close, reassuring them with their presence. After awhile, they realized that their kids had fallen asleep. Before long, they were once again soaring over the trees to Warfang, Spyro and Cynder cradling them in their arms. The edge of the sun had just touched the horizon when they reached Warfang.

The first thing they noticed was the sudden increase of citizens, most of them looking fearful or shell-shocked. This struck Spyro and Cynder as odd as they carried the kids to the Dragon Temple.

The Moles', along with a small army of dragons, had rebuilt the Dragon Temple in the middle of Warfang. They had remodeled the entire building to accommodate more dragons as well as increase the size of the Dojo, which also doubled as a shelter in an emergency. They apparently got some inspiration from Lazarus' Spire as the new temple had a Guardians' Wing as well with an equally elaborate locking mechanism. The entire thing was twice as tall as its predecessor and looked positively stunning in the middle of the city, especially at night, when the lamps on its walls lit up in a beautiful mosaic. The temple was both functional and aesthetically pleasing, proof of the Moles' prowess at building things.

Before they even made it up the steps, the doors swung open and Baero along with Solaris came running down.

"Are you alright, son?" Baero asked when he was face to face with Spyro, relieved that his son had made it here in one piece.

"I'm fine, Dad, could you help me carry Ferno and Neve? I think I injured my arm back there. Nothing major, I think it's just a small fracture." Spyro replied as he handed his charges to Baero, who took them in his own arms, cradling them.

Solaris was hugging Cynder nearby, also extremely relieved that she made it. As they made their way into the temple, Solaris filled them in on what had happened recently in Warfang.

After Malefor's defeat 10 years ago, many dragons and Moles' still speculated about his eventual return, saying it was only "a matter of time". Of course, the Guardians tried to calm them down and they were successful to some extent until beings from across the land began turning up in droves, seeking refuge from the "armies of darkness". Shortly after, Terrador heard messages from soldiers patrolling the areas that there were unknown assailants attacking villages and towns. The assailants left everything in the town and didn't take anything with them, implying that they were doing this for the bloodshed.

This caused widespread panic amongst the citizens, fearing that the army would come to their doorstep soon.

"Terrador said that his men put up a brave fight and were mildly successful in holding them back but he also said that war was inevitable. They would have to fight the Shadows, a name he came up with from witness descriptions, or their city would be destroyed." Baero finished as they lay Ferno, Neve, Noctis and Arashi in comfortable beds.

"We're on the brink of war, Spyro, and we have to fight back."

When Spyro and Cynder left the guest room, they heard some noises coming from the healing room. When they entered, they saw Hunter lying in bed nearby, unconscious but still alive, and a Healer dragon trying to place a bandage onto something, something small.

When they approached, they realized that it was a baby dragon. It was struggling against the Healer, who was trying to place a white bandage over the massive gash across the infant's chest. Curiously, the baby didn't make much noise except the occasional whimper which was very odd. From past experiences tending to wounds on infants, Cynder knew that they would likely be screaming and resisting in every way possible yet, compared to Ferno when he accidently burned himself as a toddler, the baby that was on the bed looked like the epitome of peace.

The infant stopped struggling long enough to fix Spyro with its innocent grey eye. Its left eye was covered in a bloody bandage, leaving only the right eye open. The rest of its body was almost literally covered in bandages but Spyro managed to catch a glimpse of its scale colour. It looked strangely familiar…

After recognizing Spyro, the infant squealed in joy and stuck out its arms, its eye seemingly begging Spyro to pick it up. The Healer turned around and saw Spyro and Cynder standing at the doorway and smiled warmly.

"Hello, are you the father of this hatchling?" She asked sweet-naturedly.

"Uh… I guess so…" Spyro replied uncertainly.

"Alright, then, he's all yours!" As the nurse placed the final bandage over the wound, she cradled the hatchling and placed it into Spyro's arms. Then, with an almost inaudible sigh of relief, she left the healing room.

Spyro eyed the baby skeptically. There was something about the colour of its eye and scales that struck Spyro as familiar…

Fortunately, Cynder provided the answer to that. Pushing aside the bandages covering the baby's eye, they saw an insignia in place of a pupil; it looked a lot like…

"Bolzan's?"

Spyro almost dropped the hatchling when it spoke and it took a few seconds to link the two together.

"Bolzan! What happened to you?" Cynder asked as the baby grinned playfully.

"It's a little trick I picked up while training. By becoming younger, I could heal faster than usual. This has its drawbacks, though; I can't fight at all while I'm a baby. Anyway, enough about me, what about you guys?" The voice was very infantile in nature but it was still recognizable as Bolzan's. After updating him on what happened, Bolzan gave them his side of the story.

After being knocked into the forest by Eratos, he had subconsciously become a hatchling to boost recovery. Hunter was nearby and, after some explanations, carried Bolzan to Warfang after sending a falcon to the city, warning them of Eratos. The trek would have taken days if not for Bolzan, who used some of his remaining strength to open a portal to Warfang. They had their wounds treated and Hunter fell asleep before the Healer focused on Bolzan. That was when Spyro and Cynder came in.

"So, is this permanent or what?" Spyro asked after Bolzan's tale. Admittedly, it felt slightly surreal that he was being told something by a dragon less than a year old but, he took it in stride.

"Of course not! I'll be normal in a while, after my condition stabilizes." Bolzan replied as he nuzzled up against Spyro. Apparently a small part of his mind had also become younger as he displayed rather infantile behaviour.

"Pity, I think you're adorable like this!" Cynder teased as she rubbed Bolzan's head with a paw. He brushed it off, a small smile playing on his face.

"You've heard about the war coming?" Spyro asked as he laid Bolzan back in the cot.

"Yep, I've heard from Baero and Solaris. They were pretty shocked when they learned that I was like this, you should have seen their faces!" Bolzan made a rough approximation of an extremely shocked face before relaxing, his babyish voice carrying an undertone of maturity.

"I hope they've prepared enough, I'm certain Eratos and Malefor are behind this. I can sense Malefor's presence and his heart seemed merged with Eratos', much like yours 10 years ago, Cynder. I've already told the Guardians this and they feel it's certainly plausible and I'm sure your arrival strengthened this belief." Bolzan yawned sleepily and looked at Spyro and Cynder with half-closed eyes, his innocent face a mask of seriousness.

"There's no avoiding it, either we fight or we die. Malefor's returned and he's looking for revenge along with Eratos. From what I can sense, his forces won't be here for a couple of days. Until then, tell them to prepare. There's a storm coming, and we're right in its path…" He yawned again and closed his eyes, falling asleep almost instantly, his injured chest rising up and down slowly.

Spyro and Cynder left the room and returned to their kids' room. Cynder placed a gentle paw on Arashi, who was stirring slightly as if she was having a nightmare. Arashi settled down and placed her own paw on top of Cynder's.

"Spyro, will we be alright?" Cynder asked, fearing for their family's wellbeing. Spyro sat down next to her and held her tightly.

"I don't know, Cynder. What I do know is that I won't let anything happen to our kids."

"_We_ won't let anything happen to them. I'm with you to the end, Spyro, you know that." She nuzzled Spyro, who returned the gesture.

Outside, the night sky was an ominous red, a signal for the storm that would be arriving soon.


	5. Chapter 5: Preparations

By the next morning, everyone had perked up considerably and during breakfast, even when the conversation turned to more serious matters. Halfway through breakfast, Hunter came down from the Guardians' Wing with Bolzan in his arms. Hunter's left arm was in a cast and he had quite a few bandages over his body but, overall, seemed to be in better shape then Bolzan, who was almost entirely covered in bandages. Bolzan had a mildly annoyed look on his face and was constantly rubbing his eye, as if he was unwilling to be awake.

Their first reaction when Hunter and Bolzan entered was general relief that they were alright followed by shock when Spyro, Cynder and Hunter explained the sudden appearance of a hatchling.

"That's Bolzan? He's so adorable! Can I hold him, please?" Arashi exclaimed after the short explanation. When Hunter handed Bolzan over, she began cuddling and cooing him which, although it made him blush out of embarrassment, Bolzan seemed to enjoy it.

After breakfast, Terrador had decided to discuss some plans for fighting off Malefor's forces. By the time they reached the meeting room, everyone was already discussing how to deal with them. Baero and Solaris spotted them standing at the doorway and motioned them over. After catching up with one another, they decided to get started.

"I think we should take the fight to their doorstep. After all, the best defense is a good offense, right?" Baero reasoned, always one for swift attacks. Arashi, who was nearby still holding Bolzan, perked up at this idea. Cynder noticed this and smiled, she really got her personality from Baero, the way they preferred proactive decisions. Ferno also seemed to be fairly interested in this idea, which was to be expected.

"But is leaving the city undefended a good idea? From what Terrador's been telling us, there are a lot of them and so few of us. Maybe we should just play it safe and defend the city." Solaris countered. Spyro and Cynder certainly agreed with this plan. If the city was taken, all the fighting would be for nothing.

This discussion carried on for a while; Baero favoring a proactive approach and Solaris preferring to play it defensive. When they were unable to come to an agreement, they decided that it would be better to see what Terrador had in mind. Following that, they merely chatted as they awaited Terrador's decision along with Cyril and Volteer. After a while, the meeting was over and, just as they were about to leave, Terrador signaled them into the planning room.

The room was circular with multiple tiers as well as a round map in the middle depicting Avalar and the surrounding areas. There were multiple stone figurines on the map as they clustered around it.

"There are 2 main ideas in the discussion," Terrador began as they sat around the large map with Terrador at the helm of the map.

"Those who favor a more proactive approach," Baero perked up when Terrador said this.

"And those who prefer a defensive strategy." Solaris turned towards Terrador and nodded.

"But, personally, I feel we should think about it logically." Terrador said as he maneuvered the figurines across the map.

"I've decided to call all of you into the planning room because, personally, I feel that you're all our greatest assets in this war." Everyone merely nodded as Terrador continued to fiddle with the map. There was something about the planning room that creeped them out slightly. Maybe it was the dim lighting, which came from multiple dragon-like lamps with glowing eyes, or the general emptiness of the room, causing any sounds to be amplified many times over.

"From the intelligence we have gathered, there are 8 main places where they seem to spawn from." Terrador pointed to the 8 spires across the map, 7 in the rough shape of a heptagon to the East of Warfang, and the final one between the heptagon and a large, more intricately carved obsidian castle further East, right around where Lazarus should have been.

"Isn't that where Lazarus should be?" Spyro inferred, gesturing towards the large castle. Terrador nodded.

"Doesn't that mean that they took over the city?" Baero asked solemnly.

"Or what's left of it…" Bolzan added darkly.

"As far as we can tell, they have rebuilt the city in the form of a castle, where Eratos gives orders to his army." Cyril explained, having been there as part of the reconnaissance party that was sent there to scout out the situation.

"Regardless, these towers are of more importance than a castle in the far East." Volteer said, noting how dangerously close they were to Warfang.

"But if we take out the castle, we can defeat them in one hit, right?" Ferno said with his youthful courage prominent. Spyro laughed slightly and explained that they were far outnumbered by Malefor and Eratos.

"It would be suicide to fight him first, even if we are the best fighters in Warfang." Spyro reasoned and Ferno nodded, still thinking that his idea might work.

"I feel that we should actually think of taking out those towers and securing a foothold before we attack Eratos." Hunter said, his past experience in wars coming forth. Being the Chief of the Cheetahs, he naturally had a fair amount of experience in large-scale fights and wars.

"That's also what I was thinking of as well. If we can ensure the safety of Warfang, we can then focus on taking out Eratos." Bolzan added as he adjusted himself in Arashi's arms.

As much as Baero, Ferno, Arashi and Cyril wanted a more active fight, they couldn't deny that this was a better choice.

"But what about the kids?" Cynder said, worrying for their safety as well.

"Don't worry, Mom, we can fight with you and Dad! We're tougher than we look, you know!" Ferno replied. The rest of them agreed readily with Ferno. Spyro smiled and placed a paw on Cynder's shoulder.

"Don't worry, Dear, they'll be alright with us. Besides, it might be safer for them to be with us than alone in the city." Spyro reasoned and, even though she was still apprehensive, decided that it was a slightly better choice.

"Now that that's settled, I've decided that this plan might be our best choice for this war." Terrador then began his battle plan.

They would split into two groups and take out the towers as they passed by before they met up to attack the 7th tower. There, they would decide if it was better to fight on or fall back temporarily, since the 8th tower seemed to be the strongest. The intelligence they received on the towers was from Ignitus, who supplied them with the number of casualties across Avalar and, through some mapping of the areas of casualties, they had a rough idea of where the towers were placed. By the end of the meeting, they had decided on the main plan of action.

Volteer, Baero and Cynder would be part of one group along with Arashi and Neve while Cyril, Terrador, Solaris and Spyro would be the other group with Ferno and Noctis. Bolzan and Hunter would be in charge of defending the town with the rest of their forces and each would be in charge of a small team of Dragons, Cheetahs and Moles to fight help in attacking the towers.

They left the planning room satisfied with the decision and decided to get on with some training in preparation for the battles ahead. 3 days would be sufficient to get some last minute training and smooth out the edges of any unfinished techniques. Baero, Solaris, Cyril, Cynder and Spyro decided to teach Ferno, Neve, Noctis and Arashi a few final techniques they had developed. This was met with extreme enthusiasm and they began training almost immediately. Terrador, Hunter, Volteer and Bolzan decided to begin discussing how best to defend the city.

In the Chronicler's study, Ignitus examined their progress through the hourglass and smiled. He walked over to the open book and stopped the quill for a few moments as he added his own words into the tome.

"_In spite of the odds, they were confident that they could win the war, and I believe they will. Good luck, all of you, I know you can do it."_

The quill continued writing as if nothing had happened and Ignitus returned to the hourglass and observed their progress. How he wished he could be there with them but, alas, he had his own duties to carry out. Looking at all the reflections of the dragons, he whispered proudly into the hourglass.

"Good luck!"

At the temple, all of them stopped their actions for a moment as they felt a warm breeze blow past them, filling them with hope, strengthening their beliefs that they would be triumphant. With a small smile cresting his muzzle, Spyro whispered back to the wind.

"Thanks, Ignitus."

With that, he entered the dojo where Ferno was waiting expectantly.

"Took you long enough, Dad, can we get started now?"


	6. Chapter 6: Day 1 of 3, Training Begins

"Alright, Ferno, are you ready?" Spyro said as he adjusted his training armor. It wasn't very comfortable but it would be enough to protect from any shrapnel that may be flying towards him or Ferno, who was also clad in similar leather armor.

"Of course I'm ready, when can we start?" Ferno was barely able to keep still and immediately pounced onto Spyro, knocking him onto the floor. Laughing, Spyro lifted Ferno off his chest and stood up. He pounded his paw on the ground three times and with every impact, a stone training dummy rose from the ground in a tight triangle formation.

"Now, watch what I'm doing and try to copy it, okay?" Spyro took off and coated his wings and horns in flames before diving downwards. At the last moment, he spread his wings momentarily, sending him streaking across the ground like a flaming spear towards the targets. Right before Spyro hit the targets, as Ferno was expecting, he stopped in midair with a quick spin before snapping his wings wide open forcefully, causing a massive starburst of fire. It was so bright that, even after blocking his eyes, Ferno still felt the stinging pain normally associated with staring at the sun for several seconds.

When he finally opened his eyes, he saw Spyro standing in the middle of some charred ground triumphantly; his wings and horn still smoking from the residual heat.

"Where're the dummies?" Ferno asked as he stared awestruck at Spyro. Smiling, Spyro answered nonchalantly.

"Completely incinerated. So, what do you think?"" He picked up some of the black dust, presumably what was left of the dummies, and let it blow away. It took awhile for Ferno to answer, still in awe from the lethality of that single attack. In certain spots, the ground was still burning. He was about to answer when he smelt something burning nearby. He looked around curiously before realizing that a part of his armor was on fire.

He yelped and hurriedly put out the fire. It didn't hurt but he was shocked that there was a fire, considering the fact that Spyro was a considerable distance away. It took even took Spyro a few seconds to fly back to Ferno, grinning sheepishly.

"Sorry about that, are you alright?" He said as he touched down next to Ferno, whose tail armor was still smoking away merrily.

"That… was… amazing! Can I try now? Can I?"

Spyro nodded and raised 3 more statues. Before he could explain the finer points of the attack, however, Ferno was already high in the air, his horns and wings were already coated with flames. Although he tried to replicate Spyro's change in direction, he failed miserably and crashed into the ground headfirst.

Sighing, Spyro walked over to Ferno, who was clasping his head in pain, tearing slightly. Ferno opened one of his eyes and looked at Spyro, still tearing from the pain.

"H-How'd I do, Dad?"

"We'll have to work on that a little…" Spyro sighed as he helped Ferno up. After checking him for injuries and chastising him for being so reckless, Spyro began teaching Ferno what to look out for when performing the attack, which Spyro had named "Nova Storm". By the end of the day, Ferno was at least able to redirect himself properly but he still hadn't got the hang of unleashing the flames and, instead, always ended up losing control and crashing into the targets. But, in all, Spyro was impressed at Ferno's progress as he carried an exhausted Ferno up to the Guardians' Wing, both with several bandages plastered over their bodies.

* * *

><p>Baero brought Arashi outside Warfang, carrying a bag of unknowns as they soared over the city.<p>

"So, what are you gonna teach me, Grandpa?" Arashi asked as they landed at the outskirts of the city.

"In a minute, Arashi, let me set up the area first, 'kay?" Arashi sighed and nodded reluctantly, feeling impatient.

After a short while, Baero had the training apparatus set up, even though it was just a couple of wooden targets and miscellaneous fruits standing on some wooden stands.

"Okay, we're ready." Without any warning, he flapped his wings furiously. In spite of the strength and speed of the wing beats, Arashi barely felt a breeze; and she was almost next to him! Gradually, Baero slowed down and turned to Arashi, grinning. She spotted multiple orbs of wind in his outspread wings, slowly circling around each other.

"Ready?" Baero asked as curled his wings slightly, causing the orbs to spiral faster and faster. Arashi nodded, both afraid and excited at what would happen next.

He rose up onto his hind legs and pounded the ground with his forepaws while simultaneously extending his wings towards the fruits. The orbs of wind shot out at an astonishing velocity and hurtled towards the targets, slicing up the grass as it passed and causing the severed blades to spiral around the back, proof of the extremely strong vortex the wind orbs formed. Suddenly, they dissipated and the grass floated back to the ground, the targets seemingly untouched.

"Is that it?" Arashi asked dejectedly. She had expected something more powerful and lethal would hit the fruits and targets, maybe causing them to explode or something.

"Nope, check this out, kiddo!" Baero picked up a small pebble and hurled it towards an apple sitting on the stand. It missed the apple by a wide berth and Arashi was about to complain when the apple burst into little slivers. That set off a chain reaction, causing all of the other objects to fall to pieces, littering the grass field with multicoloured confetti.

Baero turned to Arashi, who was staring dumbstruck at the empty stands, and brought her back to reality with gentle tap on her wing. She shook her head to clear the expression from her face and turned to her grandfather, still carrying a rather stupid grin.

"So, are you ready?" Baero asked, smiling proudly.

"Teachmeteachmeteachme!" Arashi was jumping up and down, extremely excited that she was going to learn something that cool.

"Alright, then, lets get started!" He then went through the basics of performing a Vortex Rush with Arashi and, by sunset, she was able to form a small orb of wind in her wings which was already very impressive, Baero told her.

As the sun set over the horizon, casting a warm red glow over the city, Baero and Arashi flew back to the temple, still talking about how to perform that attack properly.

* * *

><p>Noctis and Solaris entered another room in the newly upgraded Dojo. Although he was very excited, Noctis didn't show it as they donned some training armor. Before they began, Solaris raised about 10 training targets that stood at different heights above the ground. She turned towards Noctis, who looked fairly uncertain as he surveyed the targets.<p>

"Okay, Noctis, I'm going to teach you one of my favourite abilities. Watch closely!" Solaris then charged one of her claws with shadow and slashed at the air. A massive rent leading into oblivion appeared where she slashed and she leapt into it. In the next instant, another rent appeared near one of the targets and a shadowy bolt streaked out of the hole and burst through the target, causing it to shatter into a million pieces.

Another dark rent appeared and the spear shot through, reappearing many times in quick succession next to the other targets, impaling all of them with pinpoint precision. It was all over in the blink of an eye and Solaris hopped out of the final rent that had appeared in front of Noctis.

"That looks complicated…" Noctis said as Solaris walked over and called up a few more targets. Solaris smiled gently at her grandson, encouraging him.

"Don't worry, its easier than it looks, and I'll be here to help you, alright?" She then went through how to perform the first dash, which Noctis managed to master after a few tries, even though the void that lay behind the rents scared him a little, he managed to ignore it after a few times. This gave him a great boost to his confidence and, as he was about to repeat it the 10th time, Solaris stopped him and nodded in approval.

"Great! You're already halfway there! Now, the next part requires some timing to it…" It turned out that the timing for reentry was slightly hard to get and Noctis never managed to get further than the first attack, always ending up sprawled on the ground every time he tried to reenter the next rent.

Although he felt slightly humiliated every time he failed, it strengthened his determination to master it, which Solaris found very admirable, considering his age. Most dragons would just give up after they failed a few times, which she knew from her past experiences of teaching this technique. Technically, Solaris lied when she told Noctis that it was easy. In truth, it was one of her most complicated attacks; it wasn't THE hardest move but it came close. And she knew that Noctis knew this, which made his tenacity seem much more admirable.

As she carried a sleeping Noctis back up to his room at the end of the day, she ran into Cynder, who was standing outside the Dojo, observing their progress.

"I'll carry him, Mom, you've been training him for a really long time, and you should take a break." Solaris nodded and handed Noctis over to Cynder. Cynder stroked Noctis' head admirably, who sighed in reply and snuggled closer to her body, and they began walking up the stairs.

"Maybe he should learn my variation, it's much easier…" Cynder suggested, referring to her version of Solaris' Shadow Missile.

"I suppose you're right. I just wanted to see if he could persevere to the end, he seems so shy!"

"Well, he's a real fighter underneath that little façade." Cynder giggled in reply. Solaris merely closed her eyes and nodded, a small smile cresting her muzzle.

* * *

><p>"Where are we going, Cyril?" Neve called out to her mentor as they flew a long distance from Warfang.<p>

"We should get further from the city. The technique I'm about to teach you might destroy a part of the wall if you messed it up. I mess it up sometimes and, normally, I'd have to fix the walls myself!" Cyril laughed as they continued flying.

Eventually, they touched down in a clearing surrounded by trees. Cyril told Neve to land on top of a tree and watch as he performed the attack.

"It's safer up there." Was all he told her and she complied; if Cyril said it was dangerous to be nearby, it was probably going to be really powerful.

"Ready?" Cyril called out and Neve nodded in reply, adjusting herself on the top of the tree for the best viewing spot.

He crouched down and, with one powerful wing beat, sent himself soaring into the sky. At the apex of his epic jump, he flapped his wings and flipped himself upside down before creating a vortex of frigid air around him. With a flick of his wings, he dived down, the air around him filled with minute ice crystals that glinted in the sunlight like diamonds. As he gained speed, he adjusted his wings and began spinning at high speeds, causing the ice forming around him to orbit around Cyril's body.

He stretched out a paw and struck the ground, causing his rotations to stop abruptly. As soon as he stopped, massive, razor-sharp ribbons of ice erupted around him, circling his body in a frozen tornado before shattering, causing diamond dust to fall around him. Cyril looked up at Neve and flashed a toothy grin.

"What do you think?"

Neve couldn't stop herself from applauding. It was absolutely stunning and she was eager to learn how to do that. Unfortunately, her clapping destabilized her and she fell into a bush at the base of the tree. She stepped out drunkenly as she removed a few twigs from her horns. Regardless, she was still eager to learn Cyril's attack, despite Cyril's concern.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. Am I really going to learn that?" Neve asked as Cyril helped her clear the leaves and twigs.

"I don't know, maybe you shouldn't, since you fell off that tree…"

"That was just a mistake! I really want to learn how to do that!"

"Haha! Just kidding, of course I'm teaching you Absolute Zero!"

Although Neve was able to do the dive and stop easily, she had trouble controlling the temperature of the air around her to create the vortex required to cause the ice to form, merely causing a non-lethal blast of cold air to burst outwards when she landed.

As she sat there feeling dejected, Cyril walked over and comforted her, saying that it was hard to muster the courage to dive headfirst towards the ground while spinning.

"Don't worry; you did great for the first day. We'll continue tomorrow, it's getting late, I don't know about you but I'm feeling rather hungry! Ready to go?" Cyril asked as the sun dipped over the horizon. Neve grinned and turned towards Cyril.

"You read my mind! Come on, race you back!" She replied as she took off towards Warfang. Although she tried to seem happy, the disappointment was evident in her voice. This only made her more determined to figure out the proper way to do it. As they flew back to Warfang, the setting sun behind their backs, she made a silent vow to herself that she would be able to perform Absolute Zero by tomorrow.

"Neve! Look out!" Cyril shouted when he noticed that was Neve flying straight towards a large tree.

She opened her eyes and pulled up just in time to avoid her 2nd embarrassing accident with a tree. Neve blushed and flew a little higher as she chased Cyril towards Warfang.


	7. Chapter 7: Day 2 of 3, Finishing Touches

"I think you should take a break, Ferno…"

"No way! I'm getting the hang of it, Dad, just a little more…"

Spyro sighed as Ferno got ready to start again. Although he admired his son's tenacity, Ferno had been doing this for at least 3 hours without rest, which was a cause of concern for Spyro.

He dived and shot across the ground towards the targets, flames still burning as bright as they were 3 hours ago. As he approached, Ferno tried to stop again and, once again, failing miserably. He shot between the targets, leaving them completely untouched and crashed into the wall behind them. As proof of how long he had spent learning Nova Storm, the wall was covered in burn marks, its charred surface a testament of Ferno's diligence.

Instead of getting up to try again, Ferno lay there panting, his body covered in even more cuts and scratches than before. Spyro walked over and helped Ferno up, who was barely able to support his own weight.

"Ferno, I'm not asking you to take a break, I _want_ you to take a break, and that's an order!" Spyro warned as he carried Ferno back to the entrance.

"But Dad…" Ferno groaned, almost unable to speak from exhaustion.

"No buts, just rest here." He gently laid Ferno down near the entrance to the Dojo.

"Does that mean we're stopping?" Ferno asked as he adjusted himself to avoid applying pressure on his injuries.

"No, we're not stopping. I just need you to rest for awhile; you've been at it for 3 hours!" Spyro replied as he sat down next to Ferno. Ferno placed his head on Spyro's belly and was soon fast asleep.

Opening his eyes, Ferno saw something dark and sinister glaring at him with burning coals for eyes, their burning hate radiating towards Ferno. Paralyzed with fear, he couldn't do anything as the shadow closed in on him. With every step it took, the ground burned, spreading across the Dojo in a flash, turning the once tranquil room into a burning wasteland stretching out to infinity. As it neared Ferno's paralyzed body, Ferno got visions of cities burning, families being wiped out, their screams reverberating all around him. Even though he tried to block out these horrifying sights, it was no use; they got stronger as the shadow approached.

Tearing from the horrifying images, Ferno squeezed his eyes shut and sobbed. He forced open on eye and the shadow's burning "eye" was right in front of him. It opened its muzzle; a terrifying sound emerged from it.

"You can't hide, Ferno…"

He jolted awake and realized that he had been crying and hurriedly wiped away the tears. Sensing movement, Spyro woke up as well and saw Ferno panting. Being all too familiar with this sight, he knew Ferno had a similar nightmare as Cynder a decade ago.

"Was it a nightmare?" Spyro asked gently. Ferno could only nod, still paralyzed from the horror of that encounter.

"I won't lie to you, what you saw in your nightmare was Malefor himself. When we face him, something'll happen but, no matter what that is, you can't blame yourself, okay?" Although Ferno didn't understand what his father was telling him, he was still glad that he had someone who understood.

"Dad, I think I figured out how to do a Nova Storm. It might be slightly different from yours…" Ferno sniffled.

"Are you sure you want to do it now?" Spyro asked, worried that something might happen. Ferno nodded and got up, determined to try it out.

"Don't worry, Dad, it's just a dream, right?" Ferno sounded as if he really was unsure of the answer.

"I hope so… Well, wanna show me your version?" Spyro replied.

Ferno flew up and, instead of lighting his entire wings on fire; he coated the edge of his wings and tail with a much more concentrated flame. He then dived down and redirected himself towards the targets Spyro had called up. Now, instead of trying to stop, he accelerated, stretching his wings out. When he reached the targets, he used the resistance from contact with the targets to slow himself down before turning sideways and spinning, slicing the stone targets with his burning tail. At the same time, he flapped his wings furiously, rapidly decelerating himself and sending out large waves of flame with every wing beat. He landed amidst the remains of the targets, where he heard clapping.

Ferno turned around and saw his father applauding and a sense of accomplishment washed over Ferno.

"How was it?"

"Spectacular. Good job, son! What are you going to call it?"

"Hm… How about "Pyro Stream"?"

"If you like that name, sure! It's your technique, after all."

"Thanks, Dad, we can win this war with my new attack by itself!"

"Haha! Of course! It looks really strong!"

"Want me to teach you?"

"Sure, I could use another technique."

As Ferno began teaching his father, Spyro was mildly worried about what the nightmare meant. He pushed that thought to the back of his mind; they would be victorious, he was sure of it.

* * *

><p>Arashi lay underneath the shade of a tree, pouting.<p>

No matter what she tried, she couldn't get how to aim properly and, in spite of her grandfather's constant encouragement, she was beginning to feel depressed. Now that Baero had chosen to return to Warfang to get more targets, Arashi was left with nothing to do except pout. She closed her eyes for a moment and, when she opened them again, she found herself in the eye of a massive hurricane, impenetrable walls of wind and debris surrounding her.

The trees were being blown by the winds, stripped of their leaves. The grass was covered in what seemed like snow. Upon closer inspection, Arashi realized it was actually ashes. That was when the visions hit; a never ending stream of images, each bearing a message of fear and destruction.

She shut her eyes, trying futilely to block out the horrors. Arashi felt the wind whip up around her, never before had she been so afraid of her own element. When she reopened her tear-filled eyes, a dragon made of ashes was standing before her, fixing her with merciless crimson rubies that stood in place of eyes. It was held together by wind as it took slow plodding steps towards her. It roared and the horrifying images increased in intensity. Arashi screamed and fell to the ground, begging for it to stop as she cried.

She heard a terrifying voice in her head, seemingly coming from the winds themselves.

"What do you love, child? I will take it away…"

She opened her eyes, screaming when she suddenly felt something grab her from behind. She turned around and swung her paw, her claws digging into flesh. She heard it shout in pain and opened her eyes to see the unknown figure.

Hunter stood there, clutching his face with his right paw, blood trickling from a massive wound right across his muzzle. Only then did Arashi realize that she had slashed Hunter unknowingly.

Horrified by what she had done, she apologised repeatedly as she helped Hunter clean the wound.

"Don't worry, I'll be alright. I heard you sobbing outside the city and thought you might be in some kind of trouble. Is everything alright?" Hunter explained as he placed a bandage over his new wound. Suddenly, Arashi burst into tears and told Hunter what she saw in her dream as he held her. After she had finished, she sniffed and looked up at her godfather.

"Your father told me that your mother had nightmares like this right before you were born. The figure you saw was Malefor, your parents' nemesis and our enemy."

"Does that mean something bad'll happen to me?" Arashi sniffed as Hunter held her comfortingly.

"Honestly, I don't know. What I do know is that whatever happens, you'll have your family to help you so don't worry about it, kay'?" Hunter replied soothingly, not seeming one bit like the chief of a village.

"Now, I heard about some aiming problems from your grandfather, need some help?"

Hunter then went through the secrets of aiming properly. Hunter's method was infinitely better than Baero's relaxation method. Apparently, all she had to do was close her yes and trust the wind, as Hunter demonstrated with a simple arrow that skewered multiple leaves before lodging itself in an apple with his eyes closed.

Although she was initially skeptical, she eventually got the hang of it while practicing with a few stones. Surprisingly, instead of releasing multiple orbs of wind, she released multiple spinning scythes of wind that were much more precise and capable of slicing through multiple targets with each scythe, as evidenced by the leaves that Hunter had dislodged with a solid kick to a tree; each of the scythes redirected itself to continually return and slice the falling leaves into a million pieces.

"It shouldn't look like that, right?" Hunter asked as Arashi played around with the wind scythes, letting them spin in patterns amidst the blue skies.

"Yep; but I'm not complaining!"

"I'm sure your grandfather will be happy that you improved on his technique."

"I already am!"

Arashi and Hunter turned around and were shocked to see Baero behind them, smiling.

"Good job, Arashi! And thanks for helping her, Hunter."

"Don't worry; I'm always glad to help Arashi. She _is_ my godchild, after all!" Arashi blushed as Hunter said that, completely forgetting about her nightmare.

* * *

><p>Noctis was surprised to see that his mother was in the Dojo in place of Solaris. As he walked in, Cynder saw him and called out to him.<p>

"Hey, Noctis, ready for your training?"

"You bet! But can I take a nap first? I'm still really sleepy…"

Cynder nodded and lay down as well, yawning.

"Yeah, me too. We'll start later, alright?"

Noctis nodded as he walked over to his mother and lay his head on her belly, trusting in her warm touch as he drifted into sleep.

When he opened his eyes, he realized that Cynder wasn't there. He also wasn't in the Dojo.

It was nighttime and the entire field was cast in red moonlight. He looked up and saw a burning moon, meteors raining from its crumbling surface. Suddenly, a massive meteorite crashed into the ground right next to him, throwing up clods of dirt. More meteors rained down as Noctis ran away, trying to avoid the lethal rain. A massive wall of shadow rose up in front of him, barring his progress. The meteors split open violently, revealing many indistinct shadowy creatures. They swarmed him, engulfing him in the shadows and pulling him into the ground.

Floating in a void, Noctis looked around, panicking. Abruptly, he began falling, his wings completely useless in the darkness no matter how much he flapped. He landed with a loud thud on a black surface, sleek and shiny like a beetle's shell. Noctis tried to stand up but he felt a sharp pain in his chest and cried out in pain, tearing as he fell back to the ground. Suddenly, the ground bubbled and multiple black mirrors rose, each depicting a scene of horrible suffering. When Noctis looked at them, he felt as if he was being pulled into the mirror to relive the experiences depicted in the mirrors.

This was too much for Noctis and he squeezed his eyes shut, willing the images to leave. The mirrors shattered, shards of black glass forming into a shadowy beast, wisps of darkness escaping its wings. It turned towards Noctis' direction, staring at him with a pair of red flames in its head, presumably its eyes. The visions started again and Noctis heard another voice. If fear and horror had a sound, it would probably sound a lot like what he heard there.

"You will break and, when you do, I'll be there, gnawing at your remains…"

He jolted awake and felt a pair of arms around him. Although he didn't see who it was, he instantly recognized the assuring touch. He turned around and buried his face in his mother's chest, sobbing. They held each other for a while, Cynder gently comforting her son. She knew what he was experiencing. After all, she had once been subjected to the same kind of nightmares.

"Trust me, I know what you're going through; it's not going to be easy but you've got to buck up. Don't let Malefor mess with you, understand?" Noctis nodded as Cynder wiped his eyes.

"Alright, Mom... Can we start now?"

It turns out that Cynder's version of Shadow Missile was a series of Shadow Strikes, which Noctis had learnt from Cynder very early on. He found this much easier to do than Solaris' version. When he felt he had mastered it, Cynder decided to go upstairs to get some lunch and, since Noctis decided to take a break in the Dojo, would bring down some food for him as well.

When Cynder left, Noctis felt that there was something missing from his mother's technique. He decided to put his own twist to it. After calling up a few targets, he started.

While performing the first Shadow Strike, he spun when he leapt out and, to his surprise, multiple missiles of darkness streaked outwards, striking the targets with astonishing accuracy. He continued slashing and spinning, using his wings as rotors. With every shadow-infused slash, multiple volleys of darkness struck their targets from the portals opened from the slashes. He landed, a few of the missiles still circling his body before dissipating.

"Wow, that was pretty cool, Noctis. Good job!" Noctis was shocked to see his mother standing there, a platter of food on the ground next to her, beaming proudly.

"T-Thanks, Mom…" Noctis replied, slightly embarrassed.

"Aw, there's no need to be so embarrassed. I think that was lovely, you've really surpassed us!"

"Us?"

Solaris stepped out from a dark corner of the Dojo and nodded approvingly, smiling happily.

"Well, looks like you win, Cynder. Good job, Noctis!" Cynder snorted playfully and Noctis blushed at his grandmother's compliment.

At night, Noctis lay awake in bed, still thinking about the nightmare. Cynder walked by and saw Noctis still awake. She sat down beside him and placed a paw on his shoulder. Comforted by her presence, Noctis slowly fell into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

><p>Neve was resting in the clearing after practicing for several hours. Cyril had something back at Warfang and he told Neve to wait here for a while. As she lay there, looking up towards the sky, she realized that the temperature was dropping rapidly. Her breath misted up and, when she looked around, she realized that the entire forest was frozen; the trees were completely frozen and the grass was covered in a layer of frost. Even the clouds seemed to be frozen in midair, not even moving a millimeter. Large icicles hung from beneath each cloud.<p>

Most importantly, the Sun itself seemed to have ceased all operations. It hung in the sky, covered in a massive layer of ice that prevented its warmth from radiating outwards and reaching Avalar. The world around her slowly became colder and darker until all she could do was prevent from freezing to death by wrapping her wings around her body in a futile effort to preserve what little body heat she had left.

She sat there, shivering, as she took in the frozen landscape. When she tried to get up and fly back to Avalar, she always ended up back in the same clearing.

After the fifth time, she gave up and landed. She promptly began panicking and shouting for someone to come and save her. The only sound that greeted her was the sound of the wind rushing across her horns.

Neve realized the winds were getting stronger ad colder. Suddenly, massive glaciers erupted from the frozen ground and the wind rose to a howl. Those howls promptly turned to screams of terror as horrible images began to form in her mind's eye. As much as she tried to stem the flow of images, they came even stronger. She eventually curled up in a ball, crying, begging for it to stop.

Something grabbed her tail and dangled her upside-down. She caught a glimpse of a eye made from what seemed to be frozen blood. Its voice was cold and menacing, striking fear into the very heart of the young dragon.

"I'll be waiting for you and your family. Then, I'll kill them. One. By. One…"

She kept her eyes clenched shut, sobbing hysterically. Neve then felt a pair of small paws stroking her as well as a head gently nuzzling her, she also heard whimpering coming from whatever was next on her chest.

Slowly, she opened her eyes and sat up, surprised to see Bolzan in her lap, visibly relieved. The frozen landscape had also vanished, leaving a field of grass surrounded by trees, all unfrozen.

"Thank God you're alright, Neve. I was really worried for you!" He nuzzled her belly one more time to be sure she was alright. She responded by rubbing his head affectionately. It was STILL slightly weird that the hatchling she saw was her Godfather but she didn't care, she was just glad someone was here.

"Yep, that's Malefor, alright…" Bolzan sighed nonchalantly after Neve related her entire dream to him.

"Don't worry too much about it. Even if something'll happen, we'll be there for you, alright?" Neve sniffed and nodded, still slightly unsure of Bolzan's answer.

"Kay'. Hey, can you help me with something?"

"Sure! What do you need help with?"

It turns out that Bolzan also went through roughly the same problem of control early on (with slightly more fatal results for those nearby, he had said, looking regretful). Although his required 2 elements and hers only required 1, he said it was exactly the same (Shadow vs. Light, Heat vs. Cold, same thing). After he ran Neve through the steps, she began trying with Bolzan clinging onto her back, giving her tips.

"Alright, can you feel the differences in temperature around you?" She nodded, savouring the surrounding heat as it mingled with her own Ice.

"Now, I want you to guide it, not force it, around you." Her puzzled expression told him all he needed to know and he sighed. "What you've been doing up till now is _forcing _it to flow; I'm sure Cyril was completely able to do that but you can't. _Guide _the air around your body with smaller movements. Go ahead, try it!"

"I'm not sure I get it but, okay. Here goes!"

She dived and, instead of forcing herself into a spiral, she let the air slide off her wings, gently guiding herself into a spiral. The effect was immediate; the air seemed to flow better and it had gotten much colder. Bolzan was shouting something but she couldn't hear him over the rushing winds.

She stopped herself, this time not as violently as Cyril. Instead of a massive ice tornado, a HUGE field of ice blossoms bloomed, Neve and her petrified quarry clinging onto her back dead in the middle. She looked around at the beautiful sight before each blossom closed into a bud before stabbing outwards, each frozen in place in a lethally sharp icicle. They soon disintegrated into harmless snow, coating the ground in a fine layer of white.

"Now isn't that a familiar sight. Thanks for helping, Bolzan." Cyril stepped out from the shadows and faced Neve and Bolzan. He grinned in reply, still shaking from the sudden adrenaline rush. He hadn't felt like this since he was 6, when he…

Bolzan shuddered, pushing back the memory. Neve assumed this was out of relief and shifted him into her paws, cradling him gently.

"N-No problem, Cyril…" Bolzan panted.

"So, are we ready for Malefor?" Bolzan asked, regaining his composure.

"I suppose we'll be ready by tomorrow." Cyril replied, congratulating Neve with a proud high-five.

"Nnn…I'm feeling…sleepy…." Was all Bolzan managed before the sudden surge of adrenaline ran out and he fell asleep in Neve's paws.

"Heh, sometimes I can't believe he's your Godfather. Oh well, I'm sure your parents knew what they were doing." Cyril smiled gently at Neve and Bolzan before motioning to Neve to take off. As they flew back to Warfang, Neve began to wonder about her dream and what it meant.

She barely had time to ponder when she nearly ran into a tree…again.

"Darn it! I'm sick of these trees!" Neve seethed as she readjusted a sleeping Bolzan and flew faster to catch up with Cyril, who was trying to keep his own altitude from holding back his laughter. Yet, she didn't feel it was condescending at all.


	8. Chapter 8: Day 3 of 3, To Battle

The third day started off like any other except for one _minor_ difference, namely the army right outside the gates.

"What the… It thought you said they wouldn't come for _3_ days?" Baero exclaimed as the first volley of projectiles struck the wall, blowing bricks from the outer surface, shaking the city to its foundation.

"I said they'd come in _approximately_ 3 days. I'm not Eratos or Malefor, y'know!" Bolzan retorted, back to his 15 year old self. He'd healed considerably well with the only bandage being the one right across his chest. The rest of his body didn't show any signs of the horrible state he was in a couple of days ago.

At around the same time, Spyro, Cynder, Hunter, the kids and the Guardians also came to the wall. After a quick run through of the situation now (In Baero's words: We're pretty much screwed if we don't do something!) and they got ready to go attack the towers.

"Wait, will the town survive while we're away?" Spyro asked, shielding his children from some rubble with his wings.

"Don't worry; we'll handle them, Spyro. Just focus on taking out those towers." Hunter assured his friend. Bolzan was already perched on the wall, grinning madly as he called his Lazarite armor.

His coat wrapped around his entire body as he stood up on his hind legs. As he rose, the right side of his armor slowly turned a pristine white while multiple red sigils, much like those they usually saw when he used darkness, formed on the black side, glowing menacingly. Multiple protrusions pierced out of his dark armor, forming a pauldron and layers of bladed structures on his armored wings. Unlike Spyro's and Cynder's, there wasn't any visor covering his eye, now patch less, and the unnatural crimson eye shone through, insignia sitting proudly in the center.

On the white side, less menacing spikes burst forth, twisting themselves into graceful, intricate patterns that adorned his entire body. His right eye's pupil narrowed into a slit; a dark line in his completely gray eyes. Both halves were held together in the middle of his now upright body by gray chains. Although he was standing upright, he still looked distinctly dragon-like, standing slightly taller than Spyro. His forepaws now resembled hands and were capable of grasping objects easily; as shown when he materialized a massive spear in his right hand, swinging it experimentally.

There was something about his armor that unnerved the ten year olds, causing them to hide behind their parents. For some reason, they felt genuinely _afraid_ of Bolzan, especially when he turned towards them, fixing them with his disturbing eyes. However, upon closer inspection, they realized that it was still Bolzan underneath all that armor which they could tell from his eyes. Even though they seemed to have a maniacal bloodlust in them, they still felt warm and caring.

"Hunter," Bolzan began, his voice slightly distorted by the armor covering the top and bottom of his muzzle, "stay in Warfang and help with defense, I'll hold them off."

Hunter nodded and sprinted off to the cannons, all prepped and ready, and began briefing the soldiers.

"What! You can't go down there, they'll kill you!" Neve shouted from behind Cynder's wings.

In a flash, Bolzan's snout was right next to hers, the strange bloodthirsty grin still etched onto it.

"Darling, I've been killing for the better part of my life; in Malefor's lair, I was forced to take part in gladiatorial battles and after I escaped, I spent 3 years living through killing others, considering the fact that it was the only way to survive." Bolzan explained in a cold, maniacal voice that scared Neve, causing her to retreat deeper into her mother's wings with Arashi. Who was this?

With a final grin, he extended his wings, now covered in beautiful onyx and opal armor, and leapt off the wall, gliding gracefully into the fray as the first retaliating volley was launched, blowing holes in the Shadows' ranks. Despite this, they continued surging forwards towards the city walls.

"W-Will they really be alright?" Arashi asked after Bolzan leapt down from the walls.

"I hope so, dear. But, if there's one thing I know about your Godfathers, they're not going down that easily!" Cynder replied as the Architect came and greeted the dragons.

"Greetings, dragons, I've designed one final gift for all of you," he showed them the trinkets, each carrying a green gem with multiple intricate mechanisms hidden within each of them, "with these communicators, you should be able to contact each other over large distances. On behalf of the city, I wish all of you good luck!" With that, he passed out the trinkets and promptly left to help in any repairs.

"Hello! Can you hear me?" Ferno shouted experimentally into the amulet on his chest.

"Of course we can hear you, idiot! We're right next to you!" Noctis shouted in reply, triggering a few sniggers from the girls.  
>"Alright, are we ready to go?" Terrador asked as he prepared for the flight. The chorus of nods was his answer and, with that, the 12 dragons flew off to their mission. They flew over the armies besieging the city and, when they turned around, saw Bolzan standing in front of the gates with what seemed to be multiple weapons hovering around him. As Baero was about to accelerate their flight when a massive roar nearly threw them out of the air. The air rippled with the volume of the roar as the sound waves reached them.<p>

Not daring to look back, they flew towards their target, borne by Baero's tempest, praying for the safety of Warfang.


	9. Chapter 9: One On One Million

Bolzan leapt off the wall and into battle, a Valkyrian Spear in his hand. Landing with barely any sound, he faced down his enemies as they came surging towards the city.

Although he was slightly regretful that he scared Neve with his words, it wasn't a lie.

After he became a dragon, Malefor almost immediately threw him into a bloody ring and told him to fight for his life. Confused and in pain from the transformation, the first fight was a failure and Bolzan was almost killed until, at the last moment, the inner killer emerged and he mercilessly destroyed his opponent.

For 4 years after that, he was forced into the ring as "training" and it turned into the only thing he had to look forward to every week. On the day he escaped, he channeled all of his experience to eradicating all of his torturers. Anything that fell into his hands became a lethal weapon from quills to cards and even paper. All these were in addition to his natural weapons made his escape a gory and simple affair.

Until he was 9, being a wanderer meant that he had to kill to live. In addition to his usual dragon training, he trained with multiple weapons from daggers to scythes to axes to crossbows, all with his muzzle since he was unable to grasp anything with his paws.

However, one day, after he killed a hunter trying to catch him, a young child no older than 5 came out and began crying over the corpse. Putting the scene before him together, Bolzan realized that he had just killed this kid's Dad. This happened shortly before he entered Lazarus, swearing himself off killing.

"I guess I'll be breaking that vow today…" Bolzan chuckled as the Shadows came closer. With a sweep of his free hand, an entire armory of weapons materialized around him, hovering in midair and slowly circled his body. From the armory, he drew a sword to go with his spear before willing the weapons away.

"Bolzan…Can…Hear…?" Hunter's voice was tinny and faint as the trinkets established their connection.

"Yeah, I can hear you _great_, Hunter." Bolzan replied sarcastically as he examined his sword, Dragonfang. Most, if not all, of his weapons were crafted by the Moles and this was one of his more favored ones. The sword boasted a fairly thick and long blade with a hilt designed to be like a dragon coiling itself around the blade, wings outstretched. Its face was solemn and its eyes carried killer intent. It was amazingly light for its size, as was his Valkyrian Spear.

The spearhead was intricately carved out of titanium and weaved into a beautiful sharp pointed end. Feathery wings were folded up where the shaft and the blade connected with thin chains draped carelessly over each wing. The shaft itself was a masterpiece, sporting beautiful carvings depicting light and life. Although it was a little feminine, this was also one of his favourite weapons because of its deceptive strength.

"Aren't you a sarcastic fellow? Anyway, we'll give you a warning whenever we're about to fire off another volley so you can get out of the way. I'll also be supporting with some arrows so, stay sharp down there. Good luck!" Hunter's voice, now clear with the established connections, rang cut through the silence.

"Thanks, Hunter!" Bolzan replied before turning towards the oncoming army. "Well, well, well… I think it's time we had a little fun together…"

"What?" Hunter called through the trinket.

"Sorry, forgot to turn it off." Bolzan cut the connection and turned towards the Shadows', now closer than ever. He looked up and saw them fly off into the horizon and smiled.

"Good luck, guys." With that, he looked up to the heavens and roared loudly as a prayer to whatever unknown gods were watching them.

With that, he threw himself into battle.

In a graceful dance of death, he swirled and cut down the enemy numbers by the dozen. The spear cut through them like butter and the sword sliced those that survived to pieces. This trance-like state was interrupted by Hunter's warning. With a massive wing beat, Bolzan sent himself flying into the air. As soon as he leapt, multiple meteors flew from Warfang towards his position, blowing the Shadows' into smithereens. As he waited for the meteors to stop coming, he breathed light into his spear's tip and, as the glow built up, he kept his sword, dematerializing it into the armory.

As soon as the meteors stopped, he spun and flung the spear downwards where it streaked like a beam of light, causing massive magic circles to explode periodically. When it struck the ground, massive glaciers of Bifrost erupted from the ground before shattering, raining lethally sharp shards onto their ranks, impaling many of them to the ground. Their inhuman screams of pain merely added to Bolzan's bloodlust and he called a pair of scythes, one was made of pure obsidian and the other resembled an angel's wing.

He flew back down and began slicing his prey with wide circular sweeps. As he built up momentum, the scythes' blades separated from the shafts, connected with flaming chains. The Savior and Abaddon were twin scythes that specialized in decimation of large numbers. Enhanced with Hellfire, they were much more lethal, slicing through enemies like a hot knife through butter.

Several minutes in, however, pain began radiating from his chest towards his extremities. This wasn't from fatigue; rather, when Bolzan swore off mass murdering years ago, he asked Lazarus to place some kind of seal on him. Breaking the vow meant breaking the seal and it would begin, literally, tearing him to shreds from the inside out.

In spite of the pain, Bolzan still forced himself to continue fighting; until the pain overwhelmed him or they came back, whichever came first, he would fight.

And so he did, steeling himself against the mounting agony. In his armor, he had begun to cough up blood and it flowed down his chin, staining his fangs red. Now equipped with a pair of eight-barreled crossbows, he was firing volleys of ethereal bolts into his opponents with frightening accuracy. Every time he pulled the trigger, at least 7 bolts found their way into a head of an adversary, causing dark essence to pour out from the holes and flood the ground nearby.

Every time one of the Shadows was felled, they didn't bleed. In place of blood was a dark shadowy essence that hovered in the air, swirling with every light breeze of a blade's lethal descent.

Although he was still destroying them with lethal speed, the pain and exhaustion began to set in and Bolzan was faltering slightly. Several enemies managed to use their weapons to pierce through his armor, even though they usually died a few seconds later. Also, Bolzan realized that the Shadows were still advancing and it seemed that for every one he felled, 10 took up the place of their fallen comrade.

Critically injured and barely able to stand, Bolzan sank to his knees at the gates, panting badly and coughing up copious amounts of blood. Suddenly, the ground began to shake.

_Earthquake? No, its too repetitive…_He looked towards the horizon.

_Crap._

Several giants were cresting the horizon. Even at this distance, they looked massive. Considering their sizes, the cannons wouldn't even be able to damage them.

"Bolzan! We've got giants in the fray!" Hunter's voice, both exhilarated and fearful at the same time, rang over the trinket's communication system.

"Hunter, get the troops to fight off the small fry. I'll handle those giants…" Bolzan ordered as he forced himself to stand up.

"What? There's no way…"

"Just do it! I'll be fine. Also, could you prepare a bag or something?"

"Uh, sure. Why?"

"I'm going to need you to catch something. Something _small_."

Without giving Hunter time to ask, Bolzan removed the trinket and threw it deep into the enemy's lines. They'd be too mindless to bother picking it up.

With that, Bolzan called his entire armory and plunged all of the swords into the ground blade-first, forming an intricate sequence of patterns radiating outwards from himself.

Clearing his mouth of blood one last time, Bolzan closed his eyes and began reciting a spell he had created while training. It started out slow and simple before rapidly increasing in speed and tempo until it was an unintelligible string of words. The words themselves were actually an ancient dragon language lost over the millenniums. The spell spoke of balance, of light, of shadow, of destruction, of creation.

As Bolzan recited the spell, lines of light and shadow criss-crossed from sword to sword, tracing an intricate runic circle.

From Hunter's elevated view, he saw that in the middle of the circle, the lines formed a dragon roaring in rage, its eyes a pair of burning embers. It was absolutely stunning.

Back at the gates, Bolzan stopped his chant abruptly as white-hot pain ripped through his body. He roared as the dark essence that had been hovering across the floor drew itself into the circle at his outstretched left hand. At the same time, the dimming sunlight seemed to be sucked from the air as a massive blade of light formed in the palm of his right hand. The roar escalated as the shadow and light coursed through his body, manifesting itself as a coat encompassing his entire body. In the short moment the Lazarite armor vanished, lacerations marred his body, his white scales red with his own blood.

A massive swirling column of Hellfire erupted from the circle before freezing in a frozen storm taller then the walls of Warfang before multiple slashes appeared on its surface and it broke apart revealing a beast of pure shadow and light hovering in midair, borne by a pair of wings that were tinged with black and white auras. A multitude of swords floated around its body, slowly orbiting the beast as it fixed its eyes at the oncoming giants. It took a while for Hunter to realize that that was Bolzan but when it turned and nodded in Hunter's direction, he immediately knew and gave the command to attack, donning his Lazarite bow as well.

With eyes of burning opal and onyx, Bolzan turned regally towards the giants, the blades gently rotating. As powerful as this was, he could only hold it for 5 minutes. 5 minutes was all he needed.

He lowered his head and slowly stretched his wings backwards. As if following an unheard command, the blades maneuvered themselves next to him, lethal edges pointed backwards as they formed into an extension of his wings.

Bolzan slowly closed his eyes and muttered the ancient word for "Smite" and flapped his bladed wings.

A massive runic circle formed behind his wings and propelled him forwards. As soon as he was moving, two waves of Hellfire and Bifrost burst outwards as he shot towards his targets. The two streams of death slowly fanned outwards; the one on his left incinerating the Shadows and the one on the right froze them so rapidly that they turned to dust.

As he neared his targets, Bolzan made a quick gesture and the blades shot to his lowered head, rotating at high speeds and sending streaks of shadow and light backwards, resembling a drill. He burst through the black carapace of the giant and out its back. Before it could even react, the entire monster froze and burst in a blaze of Hellfire, leaving no trace. Bolzan barely batted an eyelid as he moved on to his next target.

1 down, 4 to go.

This time he slowed himself and raised his arms into a cross in front of his face. The blades froze behind him in a pair of concentric rings. With a quick swing of his arms, the blades flew outwards and impaled the doomed monster over and over again. Roaring in agony, the giant tried to repel the swords as if they were flies. Unfortunately, flies didn't have razor-sharp edges that lacerated the giant's arms. After toying with the giant for a while, Bolzan got bored and clenched his hand. The blades drew from nearby energies to lengthen into lethal spears that pierced the giant's chest. With a final groan, it collapsed and crushed its own comrades under its massive bulk.

2 down, 3 to go.

The third one was more wary and tried to attack Bolzan first with a flaming boulder. Dodging at the last second, Bolzan rematerialized in front of its massive eye and wagged a finger in disappointment before a blade rammed itself into the giant's eye. Staggering and roaring in pain, it tried to strike Bolzan with a mountain-sized fist and felt something make contact. Bolzan had rammed several blades into its hand and sent the rest downwards, forming yet another runic circle beneath the giant. With a smirk, Bolzan snapped his fingers and an orb of shadow descended from the heavens through a dark portal. As it passed through the giant, it tried to claw the shadow off and tried to escape the orb. However, the runes held it in place as it was torn to shreds by the countless blades within the orb. The orb seemed to be devouring the giant and Bolzan left for the next one while his previous foe was still being "eaten alive".

3 down, 2 to go.

The next one seemed positively _afraid_ of him, Bolzan inferred from the way it tried to run, crushing countless lesser monsters in the process. Not that he would show any mercy. This time, Bolzan recited another spell in the same ancient language and, as words for "Light" and "Impale" rolled off his tongue, pools of light formed above and below the giant, now realizing it was futile to flee and trying to hit Bolzan, who warped away every time the hand made contact, still chanting rapidly. Suddenly, beams of light erupted from each pool, forming a lethal lattice around the giant that began to slowly contract inwards, severely burning the giant and slicing it to ribbons simultaneously. Bolzan stopped chanting and made a little gesture with his fingers, causing the beams to rotate rapidly as it closed in, now twice as fast. The beast didn't stand a chance as the beams vaporized the dark mass that Bolzan presumed to be flesh.

4 down, 1 to go.

The last giant seemed to be the boldest of the lot and made a decent effort to attack Bolzan, even if it was all useless. Admiring this monster's tenacity, Bolzan resolved to let it die a quick death. All Bolzan had to do was utter the words for "Angel of Death" and the giant was instantly killed, its body vanishing into a burst of black feathers that slowly floated to the ground.

With the main threat gone, Bolzan suddenly felt the pain he had been resisting throughout the battle. His wings failed and the blades vanished as he fell to the ground. As he fell, the coat vanished in a burst of darkness and light, a small hatchling in its place; entire body covered in blood and gore.

Hunter was right beneath him and gently caught him in a blanket before wrapping up the shivering infant tightly in soft velvet. The blanket was almost immediately stained red with blood as Bolzan opened his eyes weakly and was about to speak before vomiting a massive amount of blood for his small size, covering Hunter's fur in the gore.

"Sorry…" Bolzan apologised weakly, reaching out a trembling paw to wipe the blood off. Hunter merely shushed him and cradled him close as he fired another arrow into a enemy.

The Shadows were at the gate and all seemed lost when, abruptly, all the Shadows collapsed and vanished in a puff of darkness.

A familiar voice came from the horizon and Hunter turned to see all of them returning from their mission, triumphant looks on all but Spyro and Cynder's faces, who were avoiding each other's sight. Cynder looked positively furious while Spyro hung his head low in shame while their kids looked fairly concerned. All of them looked completely exhausted.

Back in the Guardians' Wing, Hunter placed Bolzan in the hands of a capable healer and then went to sleep, still wondering about what had happened between Spyro and Cynder as he drifted off to sleep.


	10. Chapter 10: Outplayed

An uneasy silence fell over the party as they zipped through the skies, still unsure whether they would make it back alive. Admittedly, the silence had a calming effect on them, slowly lulling them to sleep in spite of the fact that they had barely awoken a couple of minutes ago. Ignoring the increasing drowsiness, they continued their journey even as their eyelids slowly drooped from a sudden unexplained exhaustion.

Eventually, however, they decided to land and rest in order to shake off the shroud of sleep. Just like that, all of them fell into a deep sleep as soon as their eyes were shut.

Unbeknownst to them, Eratos had cast a spell across the general area of the spires. All with the intention of trapping them and finishing each of them off one by one.

"And they fell for it beautifully…" Eratos added as multiple crablike Shadows rose from the ground and transported the unconscious dragons to their destinations'.

"Well done, Eratos." Malefor congratulated Eratos coolly. Of course, only Eratos was capable of hearing Malefor's voice but he nonetheless felt proud that his master was congratulating him.

"Thank you, Master. So, how would you like to dispose of them?" Eratos asked as he watched his minions carry his nemeses to each of the spires.

Not that they could be called "spires", anyway. Each location was distinct and built to the requirements of their owners. There was a ravine, a massive plain, a shimmering white palace, a tiered coliseum, a forest poisoned beyond recognition, a tall tower and a building that resembled a massive furnace with gates and windows.

"I believe you already have something planned for each of them?" Eratos smirked and strode over to his black throne, resting himself regally on the dark purple velvet.

"True enough. Shall we leave them to their duties?"

"Yes, that would be the best course of action for now; after all, the only ones we need are Spyro, Cynder and their_ spawn_." Malefor spat out the word like it was a piece of rotten meat.

Smiling evilly, Eratos called up his own portal with a light flick of his tail. After rising from the ground, it promptly split into 7 separate portals. At first, the only thing that could be seen was a shimmering oblivion, its shadowy essence pouring out of the portals.

Eventually, the darkness cleared and 7 dragons could be seen in each gateway.

"Well, well, well. It's been such a long time, My Lord." A slim sky blue dragon lithely stepped over to on of the portals. In spite of her icy surroundings, the dragoness looked absolutely beautiful. With a snowy white underbelly and delicate features, even Eratos blushed a little when she looked at him with a pair of milky white eyes that beheld a black pupil sitting in the middle like a black pearl on a bed of silk. "I've missed you so…"

"Do not flirt with your Lord, Frost, you know all too well I have an assignment for all of you." The dragoness pouted and smiled slyly.

"So, what do you need us to do, Eratos?" This time, it was a buff dragon with bright scarlet scales and a dark red belly resembling dried blood. Its tail ended in a massive axe-like shape that was dragging across the ground, scraping the charred ground with its broad surface as it neared the portal. 3 black horns sleeked backwards behind its head as it continued in a gruff voice.

"Hopefully it's something that puts up a decent fight…"

"Curb your bloodlust for a little while longer, Blaze, your prey will come soon enough." Blaze sighed and regarded Eratos with a pair of glowing red orbs encased within a yellow shell.

"As I was saying, I have a very simple job for all of you…"

"Finally, some action! Y'know, Lord, I don't think you're providing us with enough entertainment. It's such a chore to tend to your minions…"A young muscular dragon chided Eratos as he reclined comfortably in an earthen throne. The dragon had olive-green scales and its belly was a muddy brown. Although its wings were considerably small for a dragon; barely half the size of Eratos', the muscular forepaws more than made up for the deficiency as shown when he leapt up to the portal's platform from its throne which was easily 500 meters away. He was a dashing, if arrogant, youngster who was always looking for some excitement, brown eyes filled with an untamed violence as it peered intently through the portal.

"Oh, keep your head on, Petros; you'll get the entertainment you so desperately require. Right, Milord?" A bright yellow dragon, barely the size of a hatchling, popped into view in another portal, glaring mischievously at Petros, who harrumphed and relaxed a little. Although it looked young, the dragon's eyes were easily those of a 20 year old. Its small paws clung onto the portal's edge as it scrambled onto the platform. Its belly was an electric blue matching its dark blue eyes. With a tail resembling a twin electric bolt, the dragon could have passed itself as an electric spirit, the way small arcs of lightning jumped across its body.

"Silence! If there aren't any more interruptions, I'd like to continue with my briefing, if you don't mind." This got the bickering dragons quiet enough for Eratos to continue.

"Excellent. Now, about your jobs..."

Eratos then briefed his subordinates on their roles and most of them seemed thoroughly pleased with what they were hearing.

"Alright, are there any questions?" Eratos asked as he finished his briefing.

An elderly grey dragoness stepped up to the portal and spent several moments pondering her questions. Beneath her wizened exterior lay knowledge far beyond even the ancients that created the realm millennia ago. Her frail wings gently lowered and she sat down in a completely relaxed manner. After several seconds, she opened her eyes revealing a pair of misty orbs gently rotating within her right eye's iris. Her left eye was a milky white and seemed to be missing an iris due to its unusual coloration. A maternal grandmotherly voice rang throughout the throne room as she raised her ashy-grey belly from the grassy ground.

"Yes, I believe I have a question." She began, slowly and easily.

"What if I do not wish to kill them?"

A moment's silence followed by loud guffaws from the 4 other dragons as they contemplated her eccentric thinking.

"Oooh, I think I've sprained a muscle. What the hell, Zephyr? We know you're eccentric and all that but, really!" Blaze guffawed loudly as he grasped his belly in pain from the laughter.

"Other than that, are there any other questions?" Eratos asked, choking back a chuckle.

"Wolfsbane and Terror have been rather quiet, haven't they?" Malefor chimed in maliciously.

"What about the both of you?" Eratos posed the question to the only 2 dragons that didn't make a single sound throughout the meeting.

"Screw you, Eratos- Gahhhh!" The white dragoness, presumably Terror, doubled over in pain from that insipid remark before regaining her composure as she stared at Eratos passively.

"Now, now, Terror, you and I both know the consequences of going against me…" Eratos grinned as he turned towards the other dragon, a male, and glared at Wolfsbane menacingly.

"What about you, Wolfsbane?" Eratos asked coldly.

"…Nothing, Sir." The green dragon replied as he flexed his metallic wing claws.

"I'll be sending someone _special_ to the both of you and I expect them dead. Or else…" Eratos flicked his claw and both dragons collapsed, motionless and in extreme agony as seen from their faces, now scrunched up in pain, tears streaming down Terror's eyes and Wolfsbane cursing Eratos softly.

"If they aren't dead, I'll personally kill them in front of you, understand?" Eratos growled angrily as the 2 dragons forced themselves to stand in spite of the pain. All they could do now was nod and that seemed to be enough for Eratos, who smirked and cut off the connection.

"We'll have to keep a close eye on those two…" Eratos muttered when he was alone.

"I realize you didn't call Shader and Seraphy, any reason for that?" Malefor hissed.

"I felt that they weren't ready yet. When they are, I'll contact them." Eratos replied in a relaxed manner. Having been host to Malefor for a decade had inured him to Malefor's threats and anger, even though it did catch him off guard sometimes.

"Alright, then. I expect success and nothing less than that, is that clear?" Malefor snarled in Eratos' mind. With an evil smirk, Eratos settled down in his throne and pulled up several screens, each showing a dragon still unconscious and lying face down in a different environment as the others.

"Yes, Master." Eratos muttered as he watched the first dragon awaken drowsily, clearly confused by his surroundings.

"First one up, Volteer? Pity, you're going to die first, then." Eratos reclined in his throne as he watched Volteer examine his surroundings. He laughed maliciously and grinned, revenge burning in his eyes as he regarded the rest, still unconscious.

_Let the games begin…_


	11. Chapter 11: The Terrarian Coliseum

Volteer opened his eyes sleepily as he got up and stretched his joints, feeling them pop satisfactorily.

"Had a nice nap, old geezer?" An unfamiliar voice called out as Volteer's eyes adjusted to the light.

"It was decent, thank you." In spite of his amicable tone, Volteer had already noticed something was wrong as he surveyed his surroundings. The trees had been replaced with multiple stone steps completely surrounding him with no clear entrances and exits.

"I'm glad you had time to rest; you'll put up a better fight when you're rested." Almost immediately, the ground began rumbling and 4 beasts rose from the rents that had formed in the dusty earth. Each had trails of darkness flowing from their heads down to their tails where it eventually dissipated. The ribbons of darkness seemed to be in constant motion even when there wasn't a breath of wind throughout the area.

_A gladiator battle, hm?_ Volteer had already figured out that the establishment was some sort of coliseum from the steps; too high to be ordinary stairs and too short to act as a fence.

And he was the main attraction in the empty ring.

The first shadowy being roared and charged Volteer who silenced it with a shot of electricity from his tail that struck it square on its supposed temple. With his first adversary stunned, he turned to face the remaining 3, who were all charging him simultaneously.

An ordinary dragon would have been paralyzed from fear but, being a Guardian, Volteer had been in worse situations.

Quickly analyzing his opponents' formation, Volteer charged back towards them, wings coursing with lethal electricity. Oblivious to the threat, the beasts continued their mindless charge until Volteer made contact with his wings, causing them to scatter in a shower of sparks.

The first beast had already recovered and was now slowly circling Volteer, growling. The remaining 3 followed and Volteer found himself surrounded by them.

Sighing, Volteer leapt up into the air and was thoroughly surprised when they followed him up, seemingly sprouting wings that hadn't been there earlier.

A chase ensued in midair as the dragonesque monsters darted through the air after Volteer. Dodging blasts of darkness, he flipped and spun through the air until he got an idea.

Leveling himself out, Volteer was glad to see his pursuers chasing him, blasting his form with darkness that went wide and missed him by yards. As the 5 figures gathered speed, Petros was delighted that someone was at least putting up a fight rather than breaking down and begging to be killed.

Suddenly, Volteer spread his wings and abruptly decelerated, causing his pursuers to continue rocketing ahead. Now that he had a bead on them, he charged up a bolt of electricity in his mouth and fired it into the group, electrocuting all of them in a single shot. As the monsters fell to the ground, they gradually vanished into multiple black streams the trailed off their bodies as they fell and halfway down, there was nothing left.

Volteer landed in the coliseum, causing dust to billow around him in a red flower and yawned.

"Well, thank you for the warm-up, kid. Got anything else for me?"

"Heh, impressive… I can tell you're one of the Guardians I've been hearing about."

"Well, my reputation certainly exceeds my expectations. And who might you be?" As soon as he posed his question, he heard a loud whomp and, in a flash, an Earth dragon was standing right in front of him, looking amused.

"Petros is the name, and you must be Volteer, right?" The green dragon added as an afterthought as he flexed his small wings.

If Volteer was shocked by the sudden appearance of Petros, he didn't show it as he smiled and offered a paw. Petros gracefully accepted, planning to trap Volteer's paw in a casing of rock and incapacitating him. However, as soon as he touched Volteer's paw, there was a bright shower of sparks and a searing pain shot up his arm as he pulled away, hissing angrily.

"Alright, stop beating around the bush, Petros; I know you're one of the dragons I need to take out. What do you say we skip the formalities and get right to it?"

His paw still smoking slightly as the stench of burning flesh filled the nearby air, Petros smiled as he encased his paw in stone.

"I like the way you think. Pity I'll have to kill you first; you're the most entertaining thing I've had for ages!" With that, Petros pounded the ground with his forepaws, crouched a little, and sprang upwards high into the sky. Volteer wasn't foolish enough to follow him up; his wings were too small for a dragon of Petros' size and Volteer deduced that he'd come back down soon enough.

Unsurprisingly, after a few seconds, Volteer spotted a green speck begin its rapid descent towards the ground.

_Wow, he can jump_ really _high… _Volteer remarked as Petros drew closer. He immediately noticed the greenish tinge covering his adversary and took to the air at the last moment. Even then, he couldn't fully escape the storm of jagged boulders that had erupted from the ground when Petros landed, spreading themselves in concentric circles outwards to the edges of the coliseum.

As the stalagmites burst from the coliseum grounds at an alarming rate, Volteer found it harder and harder to dodge them as they increased in frequency the further they got from Petros.

A lapse in concentration caused a stalagmite to clip Volteer's wing, sending him crashing through even more stalagmites as he spiraled out of control towards the ground.

With a loud crash, Volteer struck the ground hard, breaking his wing in the process. As he forced himself to his feet, his wing hanging at a very awkward angle, the stalagmites crumbled around him, filling the air with a thick dust cloud that impeded Volteer's vision. As the dust billowed higher, obscuring the sun and sky, something landed on Volteer's injured wing, causing him to roar in pain.

"Ha! Guardian? You can't even beat me! I can't believe Eratos' scared of you…" Petros stomped on Volteer's broken wing, further crushing the already shattered bones and causing Volteer even more agony. Then, to Petros' surprise, Volteer smiled slyly.

"I'm not sure if you've realized, but dust in the air is actually my best friend. I win."

"What?"

With that, Volteer let out a massive storm of electricity around his body, churning the dust with electromagnetism caused by the incredibly high voltages.

Almost immediately, the dust began crackling and bolts of lightning began shooting through the dust storm as Petros began to panic. The lightning increased in frequency and Volteer responded by further increasing the strength of the ionic storm raging around his body.

"What are you doing?" Petros roared, panicking.

"Ever heard the fact that a dust storm can have an electrical storm within? It's true! Quite an amazing phenomenon, isn't it? And we're right in the middle of one right now!" Petros tried to attack Volteer but the dust was working against him. Even though Petros was only a few steps away from Volteer, he was barely able to see the bright yellow dragon as the lightning continued striking, thunder roaring at deafening levels.

"Now, what were you saying about me? Oh, right, that I can't fight?" Volteer's voice was barely audible above the thunder and it seemed to come from all directions at once. Petros tried jumping but the lightning made it far too risky as the winds picked up and his scales tingled with the mounting current.

"Little known fact: Dragon scales are _excellent_ conductors of electricity, much better than silver or copper." The lightning began striking closer to Petros now as he looked around frantically, trying to spot Volteer's scales which should be easily seen, even in the dust. Suddenly, a rogue bolt of lightning shot past Petros, missing his muzzle by a few centimeters.

Abruptly, Petros realized something.

_He _is_ the lightning!_

The thought barely escaped his mind when a barrage of lightning shot towards him, far larger than any he had seen before. As it arced through the dust, Petros couldn't help but laugh softly.

"Haha… I guess I've lost, Volteer, thanks for the good game."

The lightning blasted through Petros' body, causing a massive sonic boom that cleared the dust from the coliseum as the sound waves radiated outwards.

Volteer stood behind Petros, still frozen in his final laugh before collapsing, the ghost of his last smile still on his muzzle as Petros' eyes glazed over.

Volteer padded over slowly, carefully supporting his broken wing as he closed in on Petros' corpse. The coliseum immediately began to crumble around him, massive boulders raining from its walls as Volteer settled down next to Petros' body.

He gently closed Petros' eyes and, suddenly, Petros grabbed Volteer's paw.

"Please, listen to me just this once…" Volteer stopped resisting as he looked into Petros' eyes, now filled with sorrow and regret.

"Eratos… he's planning something…you've got to stop him, before it's too late…" Petros smiled painfully as he looked into Volteer's eyes.

"I-I'm sorry about what I've done…" Petros apologised to Volteer, who placed a paw on Petros' head in a comforting gesture.

"It's alright." Volteer whispered as Petros' paw suddenly lost its grip and fell to the ground, limp and lifeless.

Exiting the ruined coliseum, Volteer began wondering what Petros meant when he said that Eratos was planning something.

_Poor kid, I suppose he was corrupted by Malefor like Cynder._ Volteer thought as he picked up the trinket and called for some help to get back to Warfang, but not before relaying what little information he had to Cyril, the only other dragon he could contact.

"Alright then, thanks. Get well soon, alright?" Cyril replied as he disconnected the trinkets, his face grim with concern as he made his way up a massive spire as lightning flashed outside the holes in the walls, presumably windows.

_I'll worry about that later. Right now, _Cyril thought as he slowly climbed up the helical staircase that seemed to go in forever into the gloom that was occasionally illuminated by the bolts of lightning.

_Where the hell am I?_


	12. Chapter 12: The Fulminous Tower

"If what Volteer said was true, this should also be one of the spires we had to destroy." Cyril mumbled as he trudged up the seemingly never-ending stairs up into the gloom overhead. Lightning streaked across the windows, as if they were conducting across the outer surface of the tower, leaving unbearably loud thunder in its wake. The stairs were slippery with moss and Cyril had almost fallen to his death once or twice when he trod on a patch of slick moss that he hadn't anticipated.

Although he had tried to fly when he awoke, he soon came plummeting back to the ground as a horde of indistinct shadowy creatures descended upon Cyril, screeching and clawing at his scales.

"Well, they don't seem to bother anything on the ground…" Cyril remarked to no one in particular as he surveyed the masses of bat-like creatures slumbering beneath the staircases above; a living, breathing mass of darkness.

Cyril suddenly had an idea and leapt off the edge of the stairs into the unfathomably dark hole in the middle. Millions of pairs of yellow eyes opened as Cyril hastily formed an ice platform in the middle. The yellow glow slowly subsided and darkness fell once again. Breathing a sigh of relief, Cyril stomped his forepaws on the ice and was launched upwards by an ice pillar that had erupted from the platform.

Soaring upwards, the yellow glow once again forming around him, Cyril created another platform and landed quietly, causing the eyes to close once again.

Repeating this movement several times in succession carried him further up the tower than he would have in the same time it took had he been walking and, within minutes, Cyril was face to face with an impenetrable ceiling.

Stepping off the platform and onto the steps, he walked the remaining distance until he was in front of a massive door adorned with burnished copper fittings around its frame imitating a lightning bolt streaking around the door which crackled with electricity when Cyril's claws rapped the surface of the brass door, sending an empty echo reverberating through the spire.

Noticing the unusually loud echo, Cyril gulped and prayed that those winged beasts wouldn't awaken.

His prayer was replied by a chorus of screeches coming from below followed by the flapping of thousands of wings.

Reacting quickly, Cyril froze the electrical door and rammed it off its hinges, sending it careening into the room beyond and landing on the metal floor with a loud clang, causing even more screeches to join the already deafening chorus of thunder and screeches.

Erecting a glacial door at the entrance was just enough to hold back the tide of monsters which crashed into the ice continuously.

Knowing his impromptu solution wouldn't hold for long, Cyril entered the doorway at the other end of the room just as the ice began to crack from the strain of thousands of bodies striking its crystalline surface.

In the adjoining room, Cyril was greeted by a yellow hatchling snoring peacefully in a metallic cot in the middle of the room that was lined with strange tiered spires jutting out from its four corners.

The hatchling opened an eye and stared at the newcomer before yawning and stretching luxuriously before placing its forepaws on the rim of the cot and fixing Cyril with a pair of youthful, not infantile, eyes.

"Hmn? Who are you?" The hatchling asked curiously, cocking his head to the side in amusement.

"More importantly, who are _you_?" Cyril replied cautiously; clearly everything was not as it seemed, as Volteer had told him.

"The name's Jolt, pleasure to meet you, Mr…?" The hatchling hopped out of the crib, climbing onto one of the spires adorning the structure and perching on its tip like an eagle watching its prey.

"Cyril. But really, what's your real name, Jolt?" From what Volteer told him, each of the so-called "Guardians" of the structures were actually dragons under Malefor's influence. If what Petros said was true, as Volteer had told Cyril, this was no exception.

"What are you talking about? My name's Jolt! Maybe a little lightning'll get that through your thick skull…" Jolt proceeded to charge the rod with electricity before launching an orb of blue lightning towards Cyril, who deflected it with an ice pillar. Even then, the pillar shattered, raining shards of ice onto Cyril and creating an electrically charged cloud of vapor, as evidenced by the small bolts of lightning shooting through the pale mist.

"Ice versus electricity?" Jolt sighed before launching another orb towards Cyril, who dodged it by leaping to the side. "Does Eratos really think I'll have trouble defeating you?"

As if in reply, electricity began coursing through Cyril, who roared in pain as the plasma shot across his scales. Unknowingly, Cyril had dodged into the floating electrified mist and that same electricity was now burning its way through Cyril's body.

Cyril leapt out hastily, his left forepaw twitching erratically from the remaining electricity as he panted painfully, lungs nearly paralysed from the excess voltage.

"Oh dear, looks like you're outclassed, Cyril, maybe you should take a nap!" Jolt laughed before once again charging the rod and, this time, firing a constant stream of plasma towards Cyril, who began running around the room, muscles occasionally disobeying him as he avoided the lethal electricity.

Suddenly, thousands of dark shapes began streaming into the room, startling Jolt and Cyril at the same time. Screeching madly, they began clawing both Cyril and Jolt in their rage from being awoken from their slumber, yellow eyes burning with anger.

Even though Jolt was his enemy, Cyril couldn't bear to see the young dragon being attacked and ravaged by the beasts. Firing orbs of electricity randomly, Jolt had begun to panic and was trying to find a way out as the winged beasts tore off small chunks of his flesh.

Cyril breathed ice all around himself, freezing the black storm in its tracks. Continuing this, Cyril slowly made his way to Jolt, creating a tunnel of ice towards the unfortunate dragon.

When he was next to Jolt, Cyril reached out a paw and grabbed around blindly when his hands suddenly hit scales instead of feather. Clenching his paw, Cyril dragged Jolt out of the lethal storm and into the ice tunnel.

Without hesitation, Cyril blasted a massive storm of ice missiles, cutting a way through the black hurricane and blowing a hole in the metal beyond, causing sunlight to come streaming in. The beasts screeched and shied away from the sunlight, leaving a pathway completely clear of darkness.

Cyril ran through the light and leapt out of the hole. Almost immediately, he was buffeted by gale force winds, forcing him to dive down wards. With his wings still slightly paralysed from the electricity, Cyril decided to get down the faster way. Holding Jolt close to his body to prevent him from freezing, Cyril sent himself into a downwards drill, freezing the air around him as he descended.

Never before had he tried and Absolute Zero from such a height. Halfway down, Cyril was literally a spear of ice as he continued, holding tight to the half-unconscious Jolt. When he impacted the ground, hundreds of massive ice ribbons erupted, larger than any he had ever made, in addition to a wave of glaciers spreading outwards, which was totally unexpected. Also, the frozen air that had surrounded him unfolded into a frosty flower, Cyril and Jolt dead in the center.

"Are you alright?" Cyril asked as he surveyed Jolt's body, which was obviously almost shredded to ribbons with streaks of flesh showing through the bloodstained scales.

"W-Why'd you save me? You should've l-let me die…" Jolt stammered as he pushed away Cyril's paw and tried to squirm out of Cyril's grip, prompting several cries of pain as the open wounds rubbed against one another.

"I could've… but it wouldn't have sat right with me." Cyril explained as the ice shattered silently around them.

"I know your name's not really Jolt. It's just an alias Eratos used to keep hold of you." Even though this was just a wild guess, Cyril knew he had hit his mark when Jolt began crying.

"So, can you remember your name?" Cyril asked as he gently held Jolt, or whatever he was really called.

He merely shook his head as he held Cyril. He hadn't felt this kind of feeling for an extremely long time and he actually forgot what it was called.

"N-No…" Jolt sniffed as he buried his head deeper into Cyril's chest, who had begun flying back towards Warfang.

"…nothing at all?" Cyril questioned further as they continued the long flight.

"Alright, then, how about this: Du you know anything about what Eratos, or Malefor, is planning?" The shocked expression on Jolt's mutilated face told him everything he needed to know.

"H-He's planning something?" Jolt stammered, eyes wide with fear.

"I-I, I remember t-the l-last time, the last time, the…" The hatchling began stammering uncontrollably as he recalled the circumstances of his birth; all of it came streaming back to Jolt.

Being born into a slave family, Jolt's parents were working as dragon slaves for Eratos' grand ambition, mining ores for the construction of multiple structures which he would use for something "special".

In addition to that, Eratos also said that one of them would be chosen to help him fulfill his plan. Naturally, he chose the youngest amongst the slaves; Jolt and Petros were among the hatchlings he had taken forcefully from their parents, never to be seen again.

The treatments he put them through were horrible and almost all of them had died painfully except for 4 of them; Jolt, Petros, as well as a pair of twins.

"Seraphy and Shader…" Jolt whispered ominously as he shivered, recalling the pain all of them had been put through.

This was understandable, as Bolzan had explained once; the treatments forced one to remember _everything_, regardless of whether it was good or bad. Even though some of Bolzan's memories came from the dragon blood in his human body, most of it actually came from the light and darkness pumped into him.

"He threw me into that tower and put some kind of gas into the room and I immediately began obeying his every command. Until you found me…" Jolt whispered, beginning to cry again, prompting Cyril to cuddle him again.

"Don't worry, little one, you're safe now, I promise…" Cyril whispered as Jolt broke down once again. Suddenly, a loud rumbling could be heard behind them and Cyril turned to find the tower collapsing in a massive thunderstorm.

When Cyril looked back at Jolt's now open eyes, he saw that they no longer seemed tormented into a forced adulthood. Rather, they were filled with the spark of curiosity commonly seen in newly hatched dragons.

_Thank you, Cyril…_

Jolt's voice rang in Cyril's head as the baby dragon began to cry from the pain, startling Cyril.

_Owww…It hurts bad…_

He realized that Jolt was actually communicating with him telepathically as he cradled the wailing infant.

"Don't worry; we'll get you some help. Just hold on for a while longer, Jolt, alright?" Cyril cooed as he continued his flight, ignorant of his own injuries.

_I-I want to tell you something, Cyril."_

"Yes?"

_My name's not Jolt…_

"So what is it?"

_It's…_

The baby dragon sniffled and frowned, deep in thought, calling back memories long forgotten.

_Hikari!_

Hikari squealed in delight at remembering his own name as Cyril smiled warmly.

"Alright then, welcome to the family, Hikari!" He proclaimed as thy continued their flight towards Warfang. Along the way, they met up with Volteer and, after a quick introduction, a healer quickly got to dressing Hikari's wounds, who wailed in pain with every touch of the antiseptic; apparently not everyone could hear his telepathy except for anyone close to Cyril, since Volteer could also hear Hikari and was wincing in unison with every cry of pain.

_Well, I hope the rest of you will return safely, we've got some welcoming to do!_


	13. Chapter 13: The Tranquil Plains

**Hey there! Uploading this chapter as a milestone to my exams: 1 week down, 2 to go!**

**Anyway, enough about me. I'd like to know what you think is going to happen? It's not going to affect the story in any way but I'm just interested to know what you guys think is going to happen. No prizes, this is just for fun. So, leave your answers in the comments section ****and I'll take a look at them!**

**StAy TuNeD tO fInD oUt WhAt'Ll HaPpEn NeXt!  
>(LOL being randomly bored...)<strong>

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><p>A cool breeze blew over Terrador's limp wings, stirring him from his slumber. Grunting, he slowly stood up and took a gander at his surroundings. A field covered in wildflowers was slowly rippling in the breeze that seemed to come from nowhere in particular. Petals were slowly flowing across the tips of the grass, borne by the wind.<p>

It took Terrador a while before he registered that he was in another place. One of the factors was another dragon with gray scales. Both dragons stared at each other for awhile before Terrador broke the silence with a cautious, "Who are you?"

He saw the dragon's wings flex and the wind came from another direction for a fraction of a second, long enough for Terrador to figure out that this mysterious dragon was controlling the air currents. It got up and an updraft swirled around him and, as it neared, the winds grew stronger and stronger, whipping Terrador's wings backwards and forcing him to shield his eyes from the gust.

The winds stopped abruptly just when Terrador expected the dragon to walk right into him. Cautiously opening an eye, he saw… nothing.

"Zephyr." A voice from behind made him jump and whip his head around, claws brimming with Earth energy, ready to attack.

A sharp claw shot up and was poised at Terrador's neck, set to impale him.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you; he may have me under contract but I don't have to listen to that idiot." She withdrew her claw as Terrador relaxed a little, just a little.

"What idiot?" Terrador questioned the … _peculiar_ looking dragon. Within her right eye lay a pair of misty orbs jostling within the iris as she gazed distantly at him.

"Eratos, in case you were wondering. I'm sure you've heard of him, am I right?" Zephyr crooned as she continued unnerving Terrador with that disturbing eye.

"Yes… interesting…" She muttered, just loud enough for Terrador to hear. She was getting a bit too close for comfort, causing Terrador to back off slowly, seemingly breaking her from her trancelike state.

"Oh, whoops, sorry about that, Terrador." She apologised, backing off respectfully.

"Wait… I didn't tell you who I was, did I?" Terrador asked quietly, still fixated on the deformed right eye.

Zephyr smiled in a maternal fashion.

"No, you didn't. I also know you're the Earth Guardian, and you're out to stop Eratos. Also, your favourite food is steak, rare; you're friends with the current Purple dragon; and you've got an embarrassing birthmark on your…"

"Okay, that's enough!" Terrador blushed, astonished that this elderly dragon had unearthed that much information about him.

"Please, would you sit for a while and listen to an old dragoness' story?" She motioned to the gently billowing grass; which parted at her gesture and knotted itself into a large cushion. Another grass seat formed nearby and Zephyr walked over, laying herself onto its invitingly soft cushioned surface.

Cautiously, Terrador took his seat opposite her, confused by her friendly gesture. She was his enemy and should've started attacking by now. So why wasn't she?

"First, allow me to formally introduce myself: I am Zephyr, Eratos' Wind Guardian, if you may." She nodded in a small bow, which Terrador returned, unwilling to take his eyes off his opponent.

Sensing his unease, Zephyr sighed, causing a weak gust to whip up around them, and let the surrounding grass stop flowing.

"Did you find that wind a trifle disturbing?" She questioned maternally as she lowered her head in submission, showing that she wasn't a threat.

"Admittedly, no. In fact, I guess it was fairly comfortable..." Terrador replied, wishing for her to do something other than talk. The friendliness was extremely unnerving.

"Look, it's not like I can tell you what I wish to convey while we're in the midst of a battle to the death so, just relax; I'm not going to hurt you!" She sounded genuinely annoyed and there was sincerity in her voice that couldn't be replicated by through force. Satisfied with knowing he could trust her, Terrador finally relaxed and awaited her information.

Acknowledging his trust, she sat back down, assuming a serious demeanor like a grandmother about to chastise a disobedient grandchild.

"Thank you. Now, I believe you know Malefor's ultimate goal…"

"Bringing about a new world." Terrador interrupted and was silenced by a stern gaze from Zephyr. He may have been a Guardian but he was powerless under her figure stern assertion.

"Yes, that's true. However, his _other_ motive, one shared by Eratos, is to seek vengeance on Spyro and Cynder." Ending her words on a grim tone, Terrador could tell she was greatly distressed by what either Eratos or Malefor had done.

"So, what did they do?" Terrador asked. Zephyr smiled sadly.

"My, you're a perceptive one! No, it's not the question of what they have done as much as it is the question of what Spyro's naivety has caused…" Zephyr replied gravely.

"Spyro? What did he do?" Terrador asked quietly, fearing the response.

"Before I tell you about that, you may be interested in what this eye can do." She pointed to her deformed right eye. The orbs had ceased to move and just sat there like a pair of opals.

He shrugged and said yes.

"How else do you think I managed to unearth that much information about you? This eye allows me to learn secrets about other dragons and I used it to peer into Eratos recently." She shuddered.

"I fear for Spyro and Cynder, along with their children, from what I managed to see. Although most of it was covered in a deep shroud, I'm certain I saw what seemed to be a purple moon hanging in a dead sky, Malefor seated on a throne while dragons worshipped him. Also, a pair of dragon skulls and four glyphs hung behind him."

"And that's not all…"

When she finished her tale, Terrador was reeling from the information as he got up and tried to leave.

"Don't bother," Zephyr said quietly as Terrador looked around desperately for an exit, "no one can get out of here without my permission…"

Eventually Terrador gave up and plunked himself back down on the grass as the winds began to pick up again. Zephyr padded over silently and took her place beside the distraught dragon.

"It's going to be a new moon soon." She remarked and the winds grew stronger.

"You haven't much time left…" The gust turned into a tempest as the field began unraveling around them, its grass being ripped up in massive chunks and vanishing into thin air. The trees surrounding the field slowly disappeared into the grey maelstrom as Terrador stood up, too shocked to be impressed by the sight that was unfolding around him. Zephyr walked up to him, seemingly made of wind by the way she blended into the whipping gusts.

"Don't give up hope, Terrador. I also saw something else in there." She whispered into his ear before vanishing with the winds as the storm roared louder and louder.

Suddenly, Terrador was falling out of the sky and it took him a while to realize, head still too shocked from the overload of information.

He glided slowly to the ground and happened to land nearby Volteer and Cyril.

Terrador suddenly heard a cry of pain that seemed to originate in his head.

_Ow! Stop that!_

By now, Cyril had already noticed him gliding down and motioned to him to land nearby. As he touched down, the cries for help intensified and it was a chore to push the telepathic cries out of his head. Finally, when he couldn't take it anymore, he asked Cyril where that shouting was coming from.

At around the same time, a healer dragon came out and passed a bundle to Cyril, who opened it gently and passed it to Terrador, who accepted it awkwardly.

He looked into the bundle of blankets and was surprised to see a Lightning dragon hatchling inside, whimpering softly.

"Um, Cyril?"

"Yeah?"

"Who is this? Never mind, tell me later." He passed the hatchling back to the healer and when the dragon returned to the tent, the cries of help began once again. By now, he was certain that it was that hatchling that was sending these telepathic distress calls; it was also easier to ignore by now.

"Right now, there's something I've got to tell both of you." He motioned to Volteer, who limped over with his wing in a cast and unable to move.

After his information storm, both Cyril and Volteer were also shaking their heads sadly, Volteer was cursing in some extremely intricate words neither of them had ever heard before.

"What can we do?" Cyril asked but all he got in reply was a shake of Terrador's head.

"Nothing. All we can do is wait and hope they can fix their mistake…"

The three dragons looked back towards the direction where Terrador had come from just as the healer came out once again and the hatchling popped out of the blankets, cocking its head to the side in confusion.

_What does it mean, Cyril?_

"Well, we're either going to die or something else." He sighed.

_Oh. Bummer._

"Yeah…" Cyril whispered.

"Are you certain, Terrador?" Volteer asked, unwilling to believe.

"I'm certain…" He replied grimly

"It's might be the end of the world as we know it…"


	14. Chapter 14: The Poisoned Woods

Something hard and sharp was tapping on Solaris' muzzle, stirring her from her enchanted slumber. As her eyes opened, an inky black crow flapped away as Solaris took a deep breath of fresh air… and immediately regretted it.

The noxious fumes that hung in the air like a fog stung her nose and made her eyes water from the burning stench. Covering her muzzle with her forepaws, she looked around at the swamps that had seemingly sprung up around her; only that it didn't look like any swamp she had ever seen.

Instead of swamp-like trees and a marshy ground, the trees seemed like spruce and firs that had been twisted into horrible shapes, strings of noxious green slime trailed off their gnarled branches and oozed onto the equally putrid "grass".

"What happened here?" Solaris asked herself as she slowly made her way deeper into the rotten forest. Everywhere she looked there was at least one corpse of an unfortunate forest animal. The streams and rivers were bubbling masses of sludge, sluggishly flowing downstream. Dead fishes and other small animals floated in the gunk. The blue sky was obscured by the yellow-green fumes that were seemingly emanating from the trees themselves, adding on to the already poisoned land.

Yet, it felt strangely familiar to Solaris.

A sudden thought struck her and she shooed it off as soon as it had formed. "Pfft. That's impossible… is it? This feels so familiar… I wonder…" She decided to let the thoughts flow, if only to provide some form of distraction from the choking air.

She barely had time to think about it when something large leapt out of the shadows, concealed perfectly amidst the gloom of the twisted pines. Reacting quickly, she ducked and, just as the thing sailed over her head, she rammed a claw coated in darkness into its stomach and it fell into the river, groaning piteously as the dark flames spread across its belly.

"I should get moving." Solaris thought to herself and sprinted deeper into the forest, all thoughts chased away.

When she felt no other presences, she slowed down and, panting heavily, proceeded deeper into the gloom.

"Phew, I'm getting too old for this…" She panted quietly as she slowed to a trot and let the thoughts flow once again.

Now that the exercise got the blood flowing again, she was able to think deeper into the puzzling familiarity of the poisoned forest…

"Wait, that's…" She quickened her pace and hurried towards the sign in the opening beyond her. It was a large crest bearing sigils of poison and pestilence arranged in a eight-sided star, its tips spreading deep into the forest as green flames pulsed through its arms.

As she traced the sigils with her claw, they glowed in recognition at her touch as if they'd seen her before. Slowly, the sigils began to make sense the more she examined them. When she finally reached the center, she gasped in shock and awe.

Dead in the center of the star was a pendant that she had lost decades ago…

"At Lazarus…" The pieces began falling into place and she finally realized who was behind this, and the answer shocked her.

Sensing another presence behind her, Solaris leapt away from the pendant as a massive globule of poison landed at where she was merely seconds ago. Though the pendant and sigil remained undamaged, the unmarked dirt was sizzling and dissolving from the ferocity of the poison.

She chanced a glance at her assailant just as a metal blade swung across her muzzle, barely missing it by a few centimeters as she jerked her head back.

"You're fast, dragoness… Not for long, though!" A rain of poison showered across the sigil and Solaris barely managed to dive into the ground, cloaked in shadows, when the lethal rain struck the ground. Even though she couldn't see through the inky blackness that was keeping her safe, she was naturally able to sense what was happening above her and, when she felt that the rain had stopped, she leapt out of the ground in a burst of shadow…

Right into a poisoned claw.

She snarled in pain as the claw drove itself deep into her shoulder and she turned to look at the dragon face to face, afraid of what she was about to see.

It looked exactly the same as all those years ago, aging like her by a little. That pair of emerald eyes and those beautiful metal tips that Cynder had inherited from were still on his wings.

Forcefully pulling the claw out of her shoulder, she turned and let loose a jet of pitch-black flames at the other dragon, who swiftly deflected it with his wings.

"Not bad, not bad at all…" Even though that smirk was purely maleficent, it still bore resemblance to that dragon she loved…

"Hrunting!" Solaris exclaimed, partly from joy that he was still alive, partly from fear of what he had become.

"Who's this "Hrunting" you speak of? I'm Wolfsbane and it is my sole duty to eliminate you, do not call me false names, dragoness!" With that, he let loose with a jet of poison, which Solaris dodged deftly as the poison burned into the ground.

"No, you're not Hrunting… At least, not mentally; who are you?" Solaris shouted back as she dodged more jets of poison. The sigil was all that remained of the ground and the intricate web of writings made it a bad idea to stay on the ground yet, Wolfsbane didn't seem to care at all as he continued launching volleys of poison at his airborne target.

"I already told you, it's Wolfsbane!" He shouted in reply between volleys of poison.

"No, it's not; Hrunting! I know you're in there somewhere! Pleas, it's me, Solaris! Remember?" Her assailant faltered for a fraction of a second and Solaris took this as an opportunity to counter-attack. Slicing through the air ahead of her, she darted through the portal and reemerged next to "Wolfsbane", tackling him to the ground in the process.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He snarled and flipped Solaris off his belly, sending her crashing into the trees that lined the clearing.

"Please, Hrunting, stop what you're doing! Don't let him control you!" Solaris pleaded as she rolled upright. By now, the poisoned wound was beginning to fester and rot, clouding her vision with pain and illness as she struggled to stay upright.

_Your __poison __sure __hasn__'__t __lost __its __touch, __darling._ She thought to herself as she stumbled upright, just in time to fall down once again as Hrunting tried to tackle her. It backfired and he crashed into the same tree as Solaris.

Sensing an opportunity to try and get her lover back, she pinned him to the ground and locked him into place with a set of shadow shackles.

As he struggled with the chains, Solaris placed a paw on his forehead as she tried to call out to the trapped soul.

"Hrunting, please, listen to me. I know you're in there somewhere, you have to fight him!" For a second, he seemed to come out of a trance and looked into Solaris' eyes apologetically.

"Solaris…" Was all he managed to say before waves of pain shot through his body as Wolfsbane sought control once more. He ripped out of the chains and struck Solaris under her jaw, sending her reeling before she realized that Wolfsbane wasn't coming after her.

Instead, he seemed to be fighting with himself, stumbling left and right, swaying uncontrollably as he clutched his head in agony…

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><p>Inside the twisted mess that was once Hrunting's heart, Hrunting was struggling to regain control as he wrestled with Wolfsbane, now free of the shackles that had once held him captive in his own body.<p>

"Grr… Stop hurting my wife!" He roared as he wrestled with his captor in his heart.

"Do you really think you can best me, Hrunting?" Wolfsbane snorted as he threw Hrunting backwards into the mirror, shattering it in the process.

"Solaris! If you can hear me, get the pendant! It's the only way to…" Hrunting was silenced with a stomp to his throat, choking him as he gasped for air.

"Silence! She can't hear you, you idiot! Do you really think she'll…? Wait a minute, what is she doing…! No! Don't do that!"

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><p>Outside, she somehow got the feeling that the pendant had something to do with freeing Hrunting from his prison and she stumbled over to the pendant, fever and pain blurring her vision as she tried to extricate the pendant from its earthen cell.<p>

Her claws barely grasped the cool metal of the chain just as Hrunting rammed her head-first, throwing her to the ground as he searched frantically for the pendant.

Solaris opened her paws and stared dumbstruck at the pendant in her paw. Grinning foolishly at Wolfsbane, who was shocked that she managed to remove the pendant, she chucked it into the forest. Shortly after, roars emanated from the leaves; apparently it had hit one of the things waiting around the perimeter.

"You idiot… Do you have any idea what you just did?" Wolfsbane screamed as the foreign soul was torn out of the body it had once inhabited, its bonds now broken with the removal of the pendant.

"I think I just saved my husband…" She let her head rest on the ground as the poison sigils slowly faded and she smiled. Closing her eyes and waiting for death to carry her away, she was surprised as her vision slowly cleared.

She turned her head weakly and saw Hrunting with his paw over her poisoned wound as he drew the poison out.

"Hrunting…?" He smiled when he heard Solaris call his name.

"I'm here, baby." When the last of the poison had been drawn out, Solaris hugged Hrunting tight and began sobbing as she held the one dragon she had missed so much for years.

Their earful reunion was cut short when they heard a rumbling coming from deep underground and without hesitation, they took to the skies just in time as a massive being clawed its way out of the earth, throwing large clods of dirt and literally making mountains as it escaped its earthly prison.

Knowing that they couldn't fight it, they could only watch helplessly as it slowly made its way to the city. Almost immediately, more rumbling could be heard from behind them as 3 more giants rose out of the ground, all headed towards Warfang.

As they watched the giants make their way towards the city atop a nearby mountain ridge, pryaing that the city would be alright, Solaris turned to Hrunting and looked at him tenderly before hitting him across the head.

"Why didn't you tell me you were _alive_?" She screamed angrily to which Hrunting replied with a hug.

She couldn't help it and she began crying again as he held her.

"I missed you so much…" She sobbed in his arms.

"Sorry…" When she calmed down, he told her what had happened after Lazarus.

After Solaris left, Malefor returned and took Hrunting to his lair where he bonded a vengeful spirit to his own. Shackled and unable to retaliate, Hrunting had become a puppet who followed Malefor's every order.

"Until you came for me… Thank you, Solaris."

Even though they were worried for the city, they couldn't help it as they savored each others' long overdue company.

After a long silence…

"Hrunting?"

"Yes?"

"Do you know about our daughter?"

She whispered into his ear.

"Really?"

She smiled and nodded as they nuzzled each other, lost in each others' warmth.


	15. Chapter 15: The Memorial Ravine

Screams echoed throughout the steep, unforgiving walls of the ravine as a dove circled an unconscious dragon before landing on its head and pecking it repeatedly. As it stirred, the dove flapped off frantically and left the ravine with its new victim.

"Nnnnn… That felt good… So are we ready to- Wait, where am I?" Glancing around at the faulted walls of the ravine, it seemed simple enough to fly out and escape. Thinking that he'd be out in a couple of seconds, he took off into the fog that hung above him, shielding the ravine from preying eyes.

As he flew through the fog, he noticed that it was taking an unnaturally long time to escape the ravine until, suddenly, the fog cleared and he thought he had successfully escaped.

Until he flew into the red ground of the ravine once more.

Rubbing his head from the impact which reverberated throughout the ravine in hollow echoes, he surveyed his surroundings once again.

Yep, it was the same one he left.

Or, at least, _thought_ he had left.

"What the…" No matter how many gales he sent into the fog, it didn't even seem to part in any way.

"Well, onwards then." Baero stood up and proceeded deeper into the ravine's maw.

As he walked, indistinct shadows began flitting at the edge of his vision, which he ignored.

Eventually, he heard soft voices whispering all around him, emanating from nowhere in particular. Slightly unnerved, he pushed forwards.

Something stroked his nape and he froze, whipping his head around to nothing.

A claw set itself on his throat and squeezed. Gagging, he turned to find nothing but the still air.

_Damn,__am__I__hallucinating?_ He thought to himself as he entered the wall of fog that had seemingly sprung out of nowhere.

When he passed through, he was back at Lazarus, only it was the Lazarus of decades past…

He was kneeling before Chrisil's body, blood on his paws as he picked up the claw fragment and howled…

Baero jolted awake, still caught in the fog and he hurried through.

…_What__was__that?_ He thought to himself as he emerged out of the wall of fog into the ravine once again, shivering.

As he headed further up, the ravine split into two. Pondering which road to take, he heard a familiar voice and jerked his head towards the voice, which came from the left. He saw a figure sprinting off into the ravine and he chased it, not very sure why…

Once again, he awoke in another part of the ravine, breathing rapidly.

_That__looked__so__familiar__…_ He recalled a time back before he and Chrisil had become Guardians and were merely young dragons in love.

She had run into a ravine after Baero accidently made a remark about her lack of family. Chasing her, he found her curled up before a grave deep in the ravine, and he lay there with her…

"Baero…" A voice emanated from the fog up ahead and, his heart racing, Baero made his way into the fog without hesitation.

"Chrisil!" Yet, on the other side of the fog, he was now in a dead field with a gigantic crest surrounding a pair of rocks, looking suspiciously like Chrisil's parents' grave…

And she was there, larger than life, standing before the grave once more. Baero's heart soared when he saw her and wanted to grasp her. She turned and looked at him tenderly before vanishing into ashes as the fields burned and the trees morphed into the burning buildings of Lazarus as he fled the burning city.

"Okay, enough with the illusions! Whoever you are, show yourself!" By now, he had gathered enough information to figure out that the visions were illusions and he wrenched himself from the burning city, just in time to dodge a red orb that was headed right towards him.

It rammed the ravine wall, sending rocks cascading down from the rock wall. It was immediately followed by a rapid hail of more orbs and, surprisingly, blades.

The orbs could've been from any Fear user but those blades could only be made by…

In a moment of inattention, multiple red blades got too close for comfort and nicked his cheeks, sending streams of red trickling down from the small cuts they left behind.

Those blades were followed by a hail of scythes boomeranging from the gloom and he finally pinned down who it was.

A slender, pale blue dragon stepped out from the gloom, eyes glowing red as it screamed, sending a barrage of spinning swords towards Baero. He deflected them with a flick of his wing, sending his own blades of wind to counter the lethal barrage. Exhaling, he let the air currents flow across his wings and, in a flash of grey, was right next to his assailant.

He managed to get a close look at her before he was knocked back by a loud scream, sending him reeling and clasping his ears in pain.

"Stop that, Chrisil! It's me!" His desperate plea was met with a massive red axe that came crashing down from the heavens. A second axe formed and both blades returned to their owner.

"I'm sorry, Baero…" The hesitance in her voice told him that she wasn't doing this. Her body had been taken over and she was trapped, imprisoned in her own mind.

He took a closer look at the sigils and he realized what he was looking at. With sigils of terror and hatred, he was looking at an ancient binding spell. He'd read of these in the library deep within the undergrounds of the Lazarus.

The sigils were tailored precisely to fit the being the conjuror wanted to bind with and the spirit to be bonded with the host. The size of the sigil and the intricacy of the enchantments determined its strength and this was easily the size of a large mansion, radiating with evil energies.

Secretly, he smiled inside; if it took such a large crest to bind the soul to Chrisil's body…

_Wow,__good__job,__girl__…_ He thought as he dodged more blades, making his way carefully to the center. From what he knew, it took a Purple dragon to even comprehend attempting this kind of enchantment and that, by freeing the one piece that the host holds close, the soul would also be set free.

He realized that she was talking normally; signifying that the soul bonded with her had failed to take control of Chrisil completely and only had control of her body.

Not that that's very useful, he remarked as he once again deflected another set of blades from impaling him to the wall behind.

When he made it to the center, he looked and saw some carvings engraved into the stone:

_**Here Lies Spiro and Ether, Brave Dragons of Nightholm.**_

_**They Are Succeeded By Their Daughter, Chrisil.**_

_**May**____**The**____**Wings**____**of**____**The**____**Ancients**____**Guide**____**Them.**_

At the base of the grave were some words scratched into the stone:

_I miss you…_

There was also a small blade that Baero had given to Chrisil when they got engaged and it lay there, propped up against the gravestones.

As he was examining the graves, a sharp stabbing pain burned through his belly and he looked down to find a blade sticking out of the front. He coughed up some blood as he turned to find Chrisil grasping the handle of the blade, eyes wide with horror.

"I-I… Baero!" Before she stabbed him, Baero had already removed the runes binding the grave and knife, freeing her from whatever soul had her captive. As the sigils faded, the fog condensed and lightning flashed in the storm cloud that had formed directly above them before it began pouring.

"Chrisil…" Baero coughed weakly, smiling as she extracted the blade from Baero's belly and tried to stem the flow of blood.

"Don't talk; I'm trying to save you." She said coldly, her voice shaking slightly, the rain hiding her tears.

"You… can't…"

"Yes I can! Now, shut up!" Her voice was shaking heavily now from fear that she'd lose her husband.

She formed a burning red blade and held it to the wound, cauterizing it shut. She did the same with the exit wound before she tried to lift him up.

Imagine to her surprise when he stood up easily and hugged her tightly as the rain washed away the residual blood.

"I saw your grave… Do you really miss your parents?" He asked gently as lightning flashed around them.

"No, I got over them a long time ago…" She sobbed as she buried her head into his belly.

"So, why'd you write…" His voice trailed off when he realized that she scratched out those words for him.

"Oh… I'm sorry, Chrisil… I should never have left you there…" It was Baero's turn to tear as he held her tightly.

"Never mind, you did what you had to do… How's our child?" She sniffed as she rode on his back while they flew up and out of the ravine, her wings weak from disuse.

"You'd be surprised…"

"Why?"

"Never mind, you'll find out when you see him."

Shortly after they escaped the ravine, a massive beast of darkness rose from the crest and headed towards Warfang with its brethren.

For now, though, she was content with finding Baero once again, the blade hung from the unused chain around her neck as she rested her weary head on his.

Hell, the world could collapse but, as long as she had him, she thought, it wouldn't matter much.

They landed on a small mountain and chanced upon Solaris and Hrunting, equally elated to see one another.

_I__hope__you__'__ll__come__back__in__one__piece,__son,__I__wouldn__'__t__want__you__to__miss__your__mother__again__…_ Baero thought as the 4 Ethereal Guardians, now reunited, rested atop the mountain in each others' long-lost company.

"Shouldn't we get back to Warfang?" Solaris queried.

…

"Naw, it'll be alright. Besides, I trust Bolzan and Hunter to keep the city safe. Just relax!" Baero laughed gaily.

"Who're they?" Hrunting and Chrisil asked in almost perfect unison, eliciting laughter from one another.

Eh, saving the world could wait…


	16. Chapter 16: The Frozen Palace

"Mom?"

"Yeah?"

"It's _really_cold here…"

Arashi sneezed as she trailed behind her sister and mother, wishing for some kind of affinity with ice.

After waking up in the frozen castle, all she got was a bad cold as she sulked miserably through the frozen corridors. After a particularly bad sneeze, she lost her footing on the slippery floor and landed face-first on the icy surface.

"Ow… Achoo!" She sniffed as Cynder and Neve hurried over to check if she was alright.

"Maybe you should let me carry you, Honey." Without waiting for a reply, Cynder flipped Arashi onto her back, to Neve's amusement and Arashi's embarrassment.

"Quit laughing!" Her protest was interrupted with another sneeze as Neve started sniggering.

"Hahaha! Sorry, you just look so… I dunno, maybe, like a baby?" Neve burst into laughter again.

"Mom…" Arashi whined.

"Neve, that's not very nice..." Cynder reprimanded her, more worried about their predicament than breaking up petty arguments.

"Sorry, Mom…"

As they proceeded through the immaculately designed corridors, which bore many beautiful crests and ribbons of ice that flowed across the ceiling which, in turn, was held up by spiraling pillars of permafrost, Cynder couldn't help but notice that the entire place seemed, well, dead.

"Hey, girls?" Cynder asked, her voice reverberating throughout the empty hallways and rooms.

"Yeah?" Neve replied; Arashi had actually fallen asleep on Cynder's back and was drooling a little.

"Does this place seem… empty-ish to you?" Their claws clacked on the ice as they followed the hallway.

"I suppose… It's been really quiet, hasn't it, Mom?" More clacking.

They froze, the clacking continued eerily.

"What's that?" Neve whispered, slightly unnerved.

"I'm not sure… I hope it's just the echoes." The clacking sped up abruptly, followed by the wall right next to them exploding, jolting Arashi from her slumber.

"Hunh…? Whazgoinon…" She slurred, wiping off the spit from the corner of her mouth.

The diamond dust cleared and they were faced with a crystalline beast, easily triple Cynder's height. Mist trailed from its frozen body as it turned its gaze to the 3 shocked dragons and it roared with a sound like a glacier moving across the land.

"RUN!" They sprinted down they corridor, the icy monster chasing them with large loping steps. Every step caused a ring of icicles to spring up around its foot, which were shattered almost immediately as it bounded down the corridor.

"Neve! Keep going with Arashi!" She let Arashi off her back and turned to face the monster.

"Are you crazy? You'll die!" Neve protested.

Before she could react, her mother had already called on her armor and was running headfirst towards the charging beast.

Cynder's visor was fitted with a sensor that helped detect weaknesses in its target, which it was doing so right now; numerous red targets had already formed in the visor's vision, mainly on its joints.

As she was about to hit it, Cynder took off and rushed into the monster, claws burning with augmented shadows courtesy of the armor. In the blink of an eye, she was back in front of Neve and Arashi, grinning.

Suddenly, multiple black blades began slashing the frost beast, dismembering it in a matter of seconds and causing it to burst into millions of little ice shards.

"You were saying?"

Neve and Arashi's jaws literally dropped when the beast fell as they stared dumbfounded at Cynder, who seemed indifferent to the death of that ice monster.

"Hello? Can you hear me?" The younger dragons snapped out of their awe and shook their heads as if to clear their minds.

"Why didn't you do that earlier?" They cried out in unison, triggering a small giggle from Cynder.

"Yes, quite. Why _didn__'__t_ you do it earlier?" They stiffened as another unfamiliar voice rang through the ruined corridor.

In a blast of frost that forced them to shield their eyes with their wings, they were transported to an empty room, save for the decorations and a throne with a lithe, light blue dragon watching them.

"Well done, well done, Cynder. I'm impressed! You really are everything Eratos said you'd be…" A condescending smirk glanced on her slim muzzle.

"Do you know her, Mom?" Arashi whispered, wary of the other dragon.

"Oh! I see you've brought along some of the _sacrifices_. That's certainly saved us the trouble." In another blast of frost, she was right in front of them, examining Neve and Arashi while stroking them with a gunmetal claw.

"Get off me!" Arashi shouted, sending a shearing blast of wind from her mouth towards the other dragon at the same time as Neve, who had launched an ice missile in the same amount of time.

A wall of ice erupted in front of them, deflecting their attacks easily.

"How rude! And I haven't even introduced myself… No matter, I'm Frost; and I'll be your death tonight!" The wall crumbled and they barely had time to react when 6 lances shot out, missing them by a hair as they rolled to the side.

"You alright?" Cynder shouted, equipping her armor as she scanned the room for her daughters. Relieved to see them alright, she launched into attack, starting off with a supernaturally massive trio of tornadoes that circled her as she dashed towards Frost.

Her charge was deflected easily with a flick of Frost's claw, sending a large and sharp glacier erupting from the ground, causing Cynder to perform an emergency roll to the side, breaking the wind columns.

Seeing an opportunity, Arashi dashed forwards but, before she could even react, Frost had already grabbed her by the neck and was choking her.

"Arashi!" Cynder shouted and she rammed an armored paw into the ice. Immediately, a massive shadow claw erupted beneath Frost, who dropped Arashi, cheek scales flushed purple as she gasped for air.

"Haha, Spyro should've…"

"What does Spyro have to do with this?" She swept her claw forwards, sending waves of shadow streaking across the ground, their lethal edges tinged with poison. That was another function of her armor: It allowed elements to be combined.

"You have no idea what he did? Well, then, let me tell you!" Frozen shackles burst from the ground as Frost dodged the blades easily. Unable to react, Cynder was pinned to the ground by the shackles.

"He's been lying to you all these years, if you've got no idea about it…" Frost forced Cynder's head off the ground and punched a claw into her visor, shattering it and allowing her to stare at Cynder with those pale eyes, like blades tearing their way into Cynder's inner psyche.

"Mom!" Arashi and Neve ran over to their trapped mother but were stopped in their tracks by an ice cage that had sprung up from the ground.

"Arashi! Neve!" She tried to break free of the shackles but, with every movement, they seemed to tighten around her ankles.

"Oh, quit worrying; they'll be alright. Besides, we need them _alive_ for the ceremony." Frost gestured to the dragons caught behind the cage bars.

"What ceremony?" Cynder growled, unable to move owing to Frost forcing her head towards hers.

"Wow, Spyro really didn't tell you anything? Then I'll be the one to break the news to you." With a quick gesture, Cynder was now upright, pinned to a frozen wall. Her armor vanished as Frost neared; all the armor in the world wouldn't help her now.

"A decade ago, Spyro made a pact with Eratos and Malefor." Frost began in a storyteller-like tone as Cynder struggled with the shackles.

Ignoring the commotion, both from Cynder and the two youths, Frost continued her tale casually.

"Of course, his children had just been born a few days ago when Eratos met with Spyro." Neve and Arashi stopped trying to bite through the ice when Frost mentioned them.

"He told Spyro that his kids would die in a week or two, due to a rare congenital defect. Spyro, of course, didn't believe him and left. However, after Bolzan told him; and not you, Cynder, that there really was something wrong, He went to find my master once again."

By now, Cynder had stopped struggling and was listening to Frost reluctantly. The ice dragoness smiled and continued, assured of an audience.

"He told the frantic dragon that he'd be able to save them if; and only _if_, Spyro would be willing to risk their abilities for their lives..."

"I don't believe you." Cynder interrupted, unwilling to listen to her captor's lies.

"Alright, then, you can ask Spyro himself if you wish." Frost added with a smirk.

"Anyway, being the naïve idiot he was, Spyro accepted Eratos' offer. Now, ten years later, he wants his part of the bargain; my master always stays true to his words…" Frost ended ominously and turned to the two kids, both looking confused.

"Now, I'm not sure if you understand but, put bluntly; your father sentenced you to obsolescence by his own paws…" She laughed maliciously before adding, almost as an afterthought. "Not that you'll have the chance to ask him…"

When she turned to Cynder, a blast of darkness knocked her over, stunning her momentarily as she struggled to her feet.

Almost immediately, shadowy tendrils began snaking across the ground towards Frost who took to the air in an effort to avoid the shadows. Just as she thought that she was safe, a million blades struck her, tearing through her scales and causing blood to run from the wounds.

Still stunned, she fell to the ground. As she fell, a flash shot right past her and she spotted the wind dragon _outside_ her cage.

"Impossible…" She grunted. That cage of ice was, almost literally, indestructible…

Unless the other one was an _ice_ dragon, like her.

Frost adjusted her head slightly and saw that the cage was covered in ice flowers, twining themselves around the bars and, apparently, harmonizing with the bars; the bars seemed to be melded together with those amaranths.

Frost heard an impact beneath her and, before she could turn to look, she hit the floor.

Except that it wasn't solid ice. Rather, it was a mass of spikes, ramming themselves into her prone body when she hit the floor. In the middle of the spines was the blue dragon, crouched down and tearing.

When the spikes retracted, countless tendrils of darkness twirled themselves around her limbs and neck. Knowing that it was futile to resist, she relaxed as the tendrils pulled her towards its source; a massive dragon-shaped bundle of dark tendrils with glowing green eyes.

Frost laughed bitterly as the beast pulled her up to eye level.

"Don't even try, Cynder; they're doomed for sure…" With a final chuckle, a razor-sharp ribbon of shadows shot through her skull and retracted in the blink of an eye. Frost's eyes glazed over as blood trickled from the puncture wound in between her eyes.

Cynder flung the corpse away, watching it thump limply against the wall, its bones splintering loudly.

"Mom… was she telling the truth?" Arashi's voice betrayed no discernible emotion apart from a slight trembling in her words.

"… I hope not."

Almost immediately, upon Frost's corpse impacting the wall, the chains of sigils began lighting up in quick succession, filling the rooms and corridors with an unearthly glow. The castle began shaking violently; massive chunks of the decorations began breaking off and shattering when they hit the floor.

"There's no way out!" Neve flinched when a chandelier collapsed right in front of her.

"Says who?" With that, Cynder grabbed the two of them and collapsed into the ground via a pool of shadows.

A moment later, the 3 of them were standing outside the crumbling palace, panting heavily.

"What's the problem with us losing our elements? If it really happened, of course…" Neve added the last part hastily when Cynder shot her a look of pure anger. Knowing her mother, it probably wasn't directed at Neve but, she wasn't taking any chances.

Cynder's expression softened and placed a paw on her daughters' shoulder.

"If that were to happen, well, do you know what happens to a dragon that can't use his or her elements?" The two girls shook their heads.

"Your elements are more than just something that can be used while fighting," Cynder continued, "they represent your life force and, when it is sealed…"

"We'll die…?" Arashi finished uncertainly.

Cynder nodded gravely. Before she could assure them, they were whisked away on an unseen force.

Shortly after, a gigantic insignia burned brightly upon the ground and a giant rose out of the ground, making its way to Warfang in slow, lumbering steps.

* * *

><p><strong>Heh, sorry if it took a long time to upload; I got struck with writer's block. XD<strong>


	17. Chapter 17: The Molten Forge

The sweltering heat beat down upon the 3 figures as they stepped gingerly across the wire mesh walkway, suspended over a pit of flames that seemed to sense the presence above it, reaching out to grab them with its tendrils which came short barely inches beneath the criss-crossed wires.

"Wow. Those are some really strong flames..." Ferno whispered when the fires leapt.

"Yeah… Watch your step, alright?" Spyro replied as he stepped on the red-hot wires, Noctis upon his back.

All dragons had a natural _resistance_ to fire but only fire dragons were literally _immune_ to the element, which made it slightly annoying for Noctis, who was a shadow dragon.

The constant smog encircling the walkway didn't make it any easier for poor Noctis, who was coughing loudly in spite of Spyro's attempts at blowing away the smoke with his wings.

"You alright, guys?" Spyro asked after the umpteenth cough from his son.

"Yeah…" Noctis sputtered, followed by another hacking cough.

Ferno was also coughing behind Spyro and, as a reply; he let loose with another cough followed by the sound of wires creaking when he stopped for a break. Spyro turned around and hurried to Ferno, who was panting pretty loudly.

_Well,__it__'__s__been__kinda__sucky__since__we__got__here,__hasn__'__t__it?_Spyro thought to himself as he patted Ferno's back.

They woke up in the most peculiar place imaginable; atop a slowly rotating gear that was, unfortunately, burning hot. This resulted in a minor burn on Noctis' side that he was slowly nursing, preferring to lie on the uninjured side.

As they walked through the building, it became more and more obvious that they were in some sort of foundry or forge, from the conveyor belts carrying hundreds of newly crafted weapons to the rhythmic pounding of mechanical hammers.

Once or twice, they had to contend with a few enemies; horrible, imp-like things that leapt around chaotically, raining down blows from their daggers.

Luckily, they posed little threat; a single strike was enough to send them flying into the spiked walls where… well, there's no need to go there.

Throughout the foundry were pipes covered in markings, black and unforgiving as they spiraled across the ceilings and walls. Earlier on, there was barely any smoke in the air, the unrelenting heat their only obstacle. However, the deeper they got, the thicker the smoke got until it was impossible to see a short distance ahead.

They resorted to a slow, arduous slog through the black haze. Progress was slow and hard, even Spyro was beginning to succumb to the smoke. Every breath was hot and burned his lungs painfully.

Eventually, Ferno recovered enough and, despite Spyro's offers to carry him, he continued walking through the haze.

There didn't seem to be any end to the walkway and every step took a lot of effort to carry out until, finally, the 3 of them passed out from smoke inhalation. In Spyro's last moments of consciousness, they were being dragged by small, indistinct shadowy imps across the scalding hot walkway.

When they awoke, the air was clear and the floor no longer made of wires. The first thing Spyro heard was Noctis whimpering. The entire left side of his body was burned and, though they were minor and wouldn't leave any scars, it would obviously hurt. A lot.

The next thing was Ferno gnawing on the bars that trapped them in a massive cage, suspended in midair. As evidenced from the burn marks on the wooden surface, Ferno had already tried to melt the bars.

Noticing that Spyro had awoken, Ferno hurried over to his father and supported him as Spyro got up.

"Dad? Are you alright?" Ferno asked as Spyro stood up slowly.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. What about both of you?" He took a deep, ragged breath, savouring the fresh-ish air before padding over to Noctis with a fairly worried Ferno.

"I'm alright. Noctis isn't." Ferno replied as Spyro checked Noctis' burns; they were relatively minor with barely any blistering.

"How touching…" A gruff voice rang throughout the chamber along with sarcastic clapping as a red dragon with black horns stepped into the room, dragging its heavy weapon-like tail behind it, sending sparks flying.

"You're no different from Malefor… Keeping up with your facade for such a long time."

"What facade? Dad never lied to us!" Noctis shouted in reply.

"Right, Dad?" But Spyro kept his silence, focused on the newcomer.

"What do you want?" Spyro growled dangerously at the dragon, who was now flying right in front of the cage, sneering.

"What do _I_want? I'm sure you already know, Spyro. After all, it was you who…"

"Shut up!" Spyro roared, letting out a massive plume of brilliant flames towards his opponent. The flames were redirected back into the cage and Spyro threw his wings like a cloak over his kids, shielding them from the fires, all the time not taking his gaze off the other dragon.

"My, my, still protecting them up till now. Very commendable, if it weren't a _lie_…" The dragon circled the cage, inspecting Spyro, Ferno and Noctis.

"Noctis, can you still use your shadow?" Spyro whispered quietly. Noctis nodded slightly and, in spite of the pain, phased through the base of the cage with his father and brother before landing unsteadily, owing to his injured left side.

Spyro whipped on his armor and, turning to his kids, he motioned to them to take cover. They immediately obliged, hiding behind the shadow of one of the pillars.

"A shadow and a fire dragon, hm? All the better for Eratos, then…" The dragon spiraled down and landed heavily on the metal ground, its heavy tail denting the metal easily.

Spyro let loose with a blast of frozen air that immediately crystallized into minute needles of ice; not what he was expecting.

The dragon guffawed and explained, smugly, "There's no water in the air here so, ice can't form. Besides, did you really think I'd be hurt by ice in the first place?" The dragon roared and was instantaneously cloaked in a veil of liquid fire, doubling its size.

"The name's Blaze and it'll be the last thing you remember!" Blaze roared loudly before flapping his burning wings, forming a pair of burning blades that circled slowly next to him.

"Now, entertain me…" Blaze flung the orbiting blades towards Spyro, now rotating so fast that they were a saw blade of flames as it zoomed towards its target.

Luckily, Spyro's armor was customized for explosive bursts of energy and, with a blast of flames from the jets on the base of his paws; Spyro leapt high into the air, nearly hitting the ceiling.

"What. Do. You. Know?" With every word, Spyro flung a flaming meteorite towards Blaze, who knocked them away with a flick of the new shield he'd just created.

"What do _I_ know? Everything, Spyro. EVERYTHING." In retaliation, Blaze threw the shield, which burst into a shower of sparks right in front of Spyro, blinding him momentarily.

By the time Spyro recovered a split second later; the armor lessened the effect of flashes of light, Blaze was gazing at Spyro with a pair of flaming eyes right in front of him.

"For example," He begun, loud enough for the two other dragons to hear, "you condemned your own children to death…"

"What?" Ferno and Noctis cried in near unison, shocked at what they were hearing.

Spyro maintained his silence and crossed his paws between him and Blaze, gathering massive amounts of electricity, before swinging them outwards, sending a x-shaped blast of thunder at Blaze, who took it straight to the chest, sending him crashing into the cage, which collapsed.

"Dad, is it true?" Ferno asked loudly as Blaze got up from the rubble.

"… No sense in hiding it from you now. Yes, it's true; I sold your elements to Malefor. I'm sorry…" He barely had time to explain himself when Blaze rushed Spyro, pinning him to the wall, the spikes on the wall dug painfully into Spyro's back.

Blaze's burning paw pressed Spyro's neck to the wall, gagging him painfully as Spyro struggled.

"So, you've finally admitted it. Aren't you afraid they'll hate you for the rest of their lives? Or, rather, what's left of it after Eratos' done…" Blaze tightened his grip.

Suddenly, he roared and let go of Spyro, who collapsed to the floor. He opened his eyes to find Ferno and Noctis standing in front of him protectively.

"Are you alright, Dad?" Ferno asked, still watching Blaze.

"Don't listen to him!" Noctis added.

"Ferno… Noctis…" Spyro got up and quickly swept them back as a hail of arrows struck his armored wings, which shot up at the last second, tripling in size and forming a protective wall.

The arrows bounced off harmlessly as Blaze lowered himself, blowing out a small black flame from his tail.

"Interesting… You don't hate him, even if he condemned you to death? Sheer idiocy..." With a sweep of his wings, another hail of arrows, no, spears shot out and struck Spyro's shield, drilling themselves into the armor slowly.

Knowing that he can't hold up for long, Spyro blasted ice through his armor, freezing the fire spears, sending them clattering to the ground which sent echoes throughout the room.

"He's our dad and, knowing him, it was for a good reason!" Ferno shouted from behind Spyro, Noctis sounded out in agreement, "Yeah! He wouldn't do anything to hurt us on purpose!"

Those words reinforced Spyro's belief in his kids and, knowing that he could fight on without worries, patted them on their heads, smiling and thanking them for their trust; with that, he launched himself on a gigantic metal spire, wings burning brightly.

With a sweep of his paws, Blaze brought up a swirling storm of flames.

"Now!" Spyro shouted and he threw Noctis, who had tagged along in spite of his injuries. Tilting his wings slightly, Noctis covered himself in shadows and drilled into the storm, catching Blaze off guard and dissipating the flames, staggering Blaze.

Spyro erected a pillar of metal and Noctis landed on it gently, careful to avoid aggravating his injuries.

In perfect synchronization, Ferno leapt up and, on Spyro's command, dived down, coating his wings and claws with white-hot flames. With the armor, Spyro didn't need the long start-up that was usually required and, from his current position, Spyro exploded towards Blaze, who had just recovered from the stagger.

"Fools! Why do you still place such blind trust on him?" Blaze exhaled, forming a massive orb of flames at his jaws before sending it towards the two dragons.

Spyro stopped short of the flames and unfurled his wings, causing the orb to detonate in a flash of red flames. Ferno hopped onto Spyro's back before kicking off, hurtling forwards with a sonic boom; helped on by the burst of elements courtesy of Spyro.

In a flash, Ferno was behind Blaze, paws crossed in front of him. A gigantic cross sliced Blaze to shreds. With heightened emotions further strengthening their attacks, Noctis leapt into the ground the same time as Spyro was charging his Flare and he leapt out, claws slashing wildly, sending out blades of shadow towards the already stunned Blaze.

At the same time, Spyro released the Flare. With more mastery over it, Spyro was able to concentrate in into a minute beam that lanced through Blaze's chest, detonating him in a starburst of light as Blaze roared.

He landed, wishing away his armor and catching Noctis as Ferno circled over to them.

"So, you really don't hate me?" Spyro asked, lowering himself down so that he could look into his sons' eyes.

"Nope. I know you didn't want to do it; we're smarter than you think y'know!" Ferno laughed proudly.

"Haha! Looks like you really know me, huh?" That night, he was left with no other choice when…

His thoughts were interrupted by an ominous rumbling, followed by the pipes lighting up, their sigils burning brightly as the forge began collapsing in on itself. With no obvious way out, they seemed doomed when, suddenly, a black light shone around them and they were whisked away just as a giant rose out of the ground, destroying the forge completely as it stood up and made its way to Warfang.

Moments later, Spyro, Noctis and Ferno found themselves in a room with, astonishingly, Cynder, Neve and Arashi.

Although the kids were elated to see one another, the same couldn't be said for Spyro and Cynder.

"So, is it true?" Cynder asked, voice dripping with poison.

"I guess you found out about it as well… Alright; yes, it's true; I killed our kids with my own paws. But it…" He was silenced by a claw rake from Cynder, now crying angry bitter tears.

"Why?" She screamed, even the kids stopped and were staring anxiously at their parents.

"Cynder…" His sentence was stopped with Cynder ramming him to the ground. Winded, he lay there panting, unable to speak.

"… I hate you, Spyro… I thought I could trust you…" She turned and tried to leave when the massive double doors slid shut noiselessly.

"Please stop." A crisp young voice rang trough the room, evidently from a young dragoness of around 15.

The dragons turned around and saw a pure white dragoness. Her belly was a darker white and her eyes were pale, filled with sorrow directed towards the bickering dragons. She sat in a white throne, her pair of light grey horns were pointing backwards.

She sat next to a purely black dragon with bright red eyes like Malefor's. In spite of its similarity with Malefor, it didn't seem to be like Malefor at all. Its belly was dark grey and its 6 horns resembled Cynder's the way they were placed and its tail was tapping impatiently on the onyx throne, a forked blade that resonated twice with every tap.

"We have something to tell all of you." The black dragon added as it watched the 6 dragons with clear, distinct eyes.

"Before that…" They said in unison.

"We'll have to test you."


	18. Chapter 18: The Twilight Bastion

The black dragon let loose with a set of black orbs that converged onto Cynder, who deftly leapt up to avoid the attack. When the orbs hit the ground, they detonated, leaving 4 gigantic craters as they crushed the surrounding stone with their massive gravity.

At the same time, the white one performed a back flip from her throne, sending a crescent-shaped blade of light from her tail towards Spyro, who hopped a little to the left, sending the blade slicing into the floor, leaving a massive rent as it scythed across the marble.

Cynder wasted no time in calling her armor before sending a relentless hail of black spears with the flick of her tail, heightened emotions lending an edge to the attack.

Spyro retaliated by calling his armor, stretching his wings, and launching himself towards the white dragoness in a burst of light.

The black dragon raised a shield of solid shadows, deflecting the spears from him and the dragoness. When the hail stopped, he let down the shield only to find that Cynder was holding a massive shadowy blade that had sprung from her tail right at his throat. Spyro had also appeared in front of the dragoness, pinning her to the throne with a light-infused paw.

Astonishingly, both dragons smiled before nodding to one another.

"Alright, we give up, you've passed…" The male snorted with a smirk.

Spyro and Cynder released them and retreated to their kids, still refusing to meet each others' eyes.

"Anyway, first things first: My name's Shader and this is Seraphy." The black dragon, presumed to be Shader, bowed slightly.

"We're twins." Seraphy added before leaping up and vanishing into a burst of light, reappearing in front of Cynder.

"We've got some news for the both of you; one that concerns the safety of the world, wanna believe us?" She added with a kind smile.

"Cynder…" Spyro began.

"I'd rather trust them than you, Spyro." Cynder snapped back venomously, causing Spyro to hang his head, dejected.

"Alright, listen carefully, now." Shader began, suddenly next to Spyro which caused him to jump.

"Oh, relax. Trust me; we're as scared as you are…" The slight quavering in his voice felt genuine enough and Spyro relaxed. If only a little.

"I'm sure you've already found out about Eratos' plan, right?" Spyro and Cynder kept quiet, unwilling to speak.

"I'll take your silence as consent. Those your kids?" Shader nodded to the 4 younger dragons behind Spyro and Cynder. His question was met with a brief nod from Arashi, too scared to even move.

"Good enough. All of you know your dad just condemned you to death, right?" Cynder's eyes shot poisoned daggers at Spyro, who simply kept quiet, too guilty to retort.

"Yeah, so what? We' re NOT leaving him." Ferno retorted curtly. The rest of them nodded in agreement.

"Unfortunately, as of present, I think running would be a good option…" Seraphy was now behind Spyro and Cynder, regarding the 4 kids with sad eyes.

"What a pity, to die at such a young age…" Shader shook his head sadly before brightening up, that uncertain tone still evident in his voice.

"Do you even know what Eratos plans to use their elements for?" Seraphy whispered from behind them.

"Knowing him, nothing good's going to come out of his plot." Cynder replied, turning to Seraphy. "How can I stop him?"

"Convexity." Shader piped up.

"What? Doesn't that mean only I can stop him?" Spyro chimed in, glad that he'd be able to redeem himself.

"No, not you. I mean Eratos plans to use convexity to destroy the world." Shader sighed slowly, letting Seraphy continue with the explanation.

"He's found a new way, courtesy of Malefor, to bring the entire world to his paws while "cleansing" it, as Malefor wishes." Seraphy's eyes were darting around the room.

"But you can stop it, all you have to do…" Shader's words were cut short by a black chain to his skull. There wasn't any blood whatsoever and Shader fell to the floor, glassy-eyed.

"Oh god, he's here. Please! You have to stop him! Don't let him call the Amethyst Night or…" She, too, was silenced with another chain right to her nape.

"Now, I don't recall letting either of you tell them that much, did I?" That all-too familiar voice rang throughout the room, maleficent and mocking as ever.

"Come out, Eratos, I know you're there!" Cynder's visor was picking up minute traces of something flitting about since the start of their conversation with Shader and Seraphy. She had originally put it down as some dust in the corner of her vision but, now, it was apparent that something else was nearby.

The room flashed black and Eratos was suddenly standing astride the empty thrones, laughing evilly.

"I'm not letting you get them!" Spyro growled menacingly, standing guard.

Eratos grinned and took aim with the mechanism on his shoulder, something new from their last skirmish.

A series of clicks emanated from it and a metallic tip slid out before splitting open like a flower, revealing multiple spear-tips, before firing in a series of loud explosions.

The tips burst out; each attached to a chain connected to Eratos' weapon, and flew towards Spyro and Cynder. The two of them deflected the lethal array easily with their wings and they embedded themselves on the nearby walls.

Eratos, ear now bleeding from the volume, tightened the chains and sent darkness coursing through the metal. Crafted out of Oblivium, the entire shoulder-cannon was a conduit for shadows, allowing him to send his own darkness pulsing through the weapon, particularly the chains, now burning with a bright black flame.

"How do you like my new weapon?" Eratos snorted proudly.

"Honestly? Pretty darn useless…" Spyro retorted loudly before launching himself towards Eratos, armored claws extended with light, and was prepared to slash that smug grin off of Eratos' face.

Behind them, Neve caught something rising out of the ground, sinister and shadowy.

"Uh, Mom?" When Cynder turned around, the thing had already crawled out of the ground and was plodding towards them, tailed by another 3 more identical beasts.

"What are those things?" Arashi backed up into Cynder's belly and was wide-eyed with fear.

Another thing Eratos' cannon was capable of doing was amplifying his darkness many times over, allowing him to summon powerful Darkbeasts without actually requiring to trace out the circles with his claws, which would normally be the case.

This was accomplished by the shadows that burned through the chains. It streaked across the floor and walls, crossing and twisting into complex shapes. With every shape that formed, another Darkbeast crawled out until there was a veritable army of the shadowy beings.

This was how Eratos had managed to take over that many towns: By shooting his shoulder cannon from the air and encircling towns in its lethal barbs, he could summon as many of the Darkbeasts as he wanted, easily overrunning its defenses.

The main drawback was that, when he was summoning, he was completely immobile. This was a huge problem from the start but he'd figured out a way to overcome it.

Spyro was right in front of Eratos' face and was just about to attack when he was suddenly crushed to the ground by an unseen force. See, an alternate use of darkness was augmenting or increasing destructive forces like gravity, which was what he'd done.

Unable to move owing to the massive gravity pressing down on him, Spyro struggled as Eratos withdrew the barbs from the walls, sliding back into the cannon's tip noiselessly.

"Spyro!" In spite of her anger, she couldn't help but worry for him when she saw Spyro crushed to the floor. However, she had no time to worry.

"Get down!" She shouted and her kids immediately dropped to their bellies. She roared, sending a ring of razor-sharp winds emanating from her jaws that sliced the monsters to pieces. She was so intent on the other monsters that she failed to notice the one that snuck up behind her. It grabbed her wings with massive tentacles, hoisting her upwards and pinning her to the ceiling when the tentacles extended.

No matter how much she struggled, the tentacles held fast, tightening around her wings as Eratos left the black bubble of gravity, leaving Spyro trapped within.

"Checkmate, Spyro, I win." He walked over to the 4 kids who were already paralysed with fear and aimed the cannon at them.

"Run!" Spyro shouted out. They bolted as the cannon fired, embedding 4 hooks into the ground where they were a couple of moments ago. The Darkbeast that held Cynder reacted to Eratos' command and fired off another set of tentacles that snaked across the ground towards the fleeing dragons.

They had just made it out of the door and were about to take off when something grabbed their tail and dragged them painfully back into the throne room, claws making scratch-marks in the ground as they were dragged back in.

They were hoisted up, struggling to break free of the tentacles, as Eratos walked over, sighing.

"You really take after your father, running away like that." The cannon was once again raised as 4 hooks pointed their sharp edges towards their hearts. They'd have retaliated had there not been any tentacles restricting their breathing.

A series of warning clicks rang throughout the room, impossibly loud the Spyro and Cynder's ears, as the hooks fired.

This time, the hooks hit their mark, causing the 4 of them to scream in pain as the hooks shot into their chests. It left no blood, not even a mark, as the hooks retracted from the sobbing dragons, each carrying a glyph.

"Mine, I think." With its purpose fulfilled, the cannon was detached and flung outside the building, landing with a dull thud on the grass below.

He forced the glyphs into his chest, grunting as the glyphs assimilated themselves to their new owner.

Almost immediately, Eratos doubled over, falling o his belly as blood seeped out of his jaws. In spite of the gore, he grinned, revealing 2 rows of bloody teeth as he turned towards Spyro and Cynder, now free of their restraints, reunited with their offspring.

"I guess you didn't manage to warn them in time, Shader and Seraphy. I win." With that, he vanished in a burst of darkness back to his lair as the bastion came crashing down around the 6 dragons.


	19. Chapter 19: Rise of the Amethyst Moon

As the dust settled, the land where the bastion once stood was covered in rubble, eerily quiet.

A fallen pillar trembled and it burst apart, revealing Spyro standing protectively over his family, armored wings outstretched. Cynder looked up and the first thing she did was give Spyro a good hard whack on the belly, right in front of their slightly shocked kids.

"Stop acting like you care, Spyro!" She screamed and took off, tears glistening at the edge of her bloodshot eyes.

"Cynder!" Spyro shouted towards her rapidly disappearing silhouette against the setting sun.

"Why's Mom so angry at you?" Ferno asked as he flew alongside his family, chasing after Cynder.

"Aren't you disappointed at me at all?" Spyro replied miserably, slowing down a little to let them catch up.

"No, we're not." Noctis replied on behalf of his sibling, who nodded in agreement.

"But I just" Spyro gulped," killed all of you…"

"So? It doesn't mean you're bad." Neve told her father, flying close to him.

"Yeah! You just didn't make a good choice back then!" Arashi added, landing on her father's back and causing him to lose a little altitude.

Recovering from the sudden load on his back, their words still didn't make him feel any better as he sped up to reach Cynder.

A short while later, they spotted Cynder with the rest of the Guardians. She was fairly quiet as the Guardians milled around the temporary camp, giving orders to the assorted members of the military.

"Spyro! You made it back!" Baero gave Spyro a fatherly hug.

"Hi Dad…" Spyro replied, not taking his eyes off Cynder, who was chatting with her mother and an unknown dragon.

"So you're my son? Well, well, you really do take after your father." A feminine voice came from behind them, startling Spyro.

"Oh, right; Spyro, meet your mother, Chrisil." Baero drew the lithe dragon behind them into a big hug.

"M-My mother?" Spyro stuttered, slightly overwhelmed.

Chrisil patted the stunned dragon on his head before drawing him into a hug.

"Of course, Spyro. I'm so glad to see you!" She let go and took in Spyro with proud eyes.

"Also, Cynder's Dad's also returned! Isn't this great?" Baero smiled, oblivious to the turmoil within his son's heart.

"Yeah, great, Dad…"

_Who's this?_

The voice that suddenly popped into his head shocked Spyro a little as he glanced around for its source.

_Over here._

Spyro spun around to find a little yellow dragon seated atop Cyril's head, fixing Spyro with a pair of bright, juvenile eyes.

"Um… Hello?" Spyro greeted the little dragon uncertainly.

_Don't worry, you're not insane._

The little dragon smiled and held out a small paw.

_I'm Hikari!_

"I found this little guy at one of our targets, in case you were wondering." Cyril explained, soliciting an indignant snort from the child.

_You wanted to kill me, I wanted to kill you; I don't think that means you "found" me, Cyril._

"Oh well, regardless. Anyway, he's staying with us in the temple as a… well we're not too sure yet."

Spyro chuckled a little, feeling slightly better.

As they flew back, stories we're swapped and Intel was shared between them. They also took the time to get to know one another, in spite of their exhaustion. Spyro and Cynder were the only ones that remained silent, save for the occasional question to which they gave single word replies; all the while avoiding each other's eyes.

The kids were getting a little worried about the state their parents were in as they pulled into Warfang. The city was, thankfully, intact and undamaged.

Bolzan was in Hunter's arms, apparently in his "Recovery" form, as he liked to call it. Hunter smiled a little and waved wearily at the approaching dragons, who reciprocated his gesture.

"I take it you're all alright?" Hunter called out as they swooped over his head.

"Yeah, we're fine! Looks like we won!" Hrunting shouted in reply, leaving Hunter wondering who that dragon was.

A while later, as the Guardians were resting in their Wing, Spyro and Cynder found the time to sit down and talk.

Locking themselves in a large bedroom, they sat opposite one another.

They continued staring at each other for the better part of an hour until Spyro spoke quietly.

"Why're you so angry at me? I did it for our kids, y'know!" Spyro began, feeling indignant.

"By killing them? Oh, of course you helped them." Cynder snapped back sarcastically.

"I thought I could trust you! Why'd you keep that secret from me all these years?" Cynder seemed to be on the verge of tears as she continued her tirade.

"Cynder…"Spyro crossed the room to her and was about to comfort her when she pushed him away and stormed out of the room, leaving Spyro alone to contemplate on how he'd just screwed up his relationship with his true love.

After a while, he'd finally decided on his course of action to prove to her that he really cared.

He'd go and get the kids' lives back.

Creeping out of the temple, Spyro took to the air and began flying towards Eratos' castle.

If what Seraphy and Shader told him was true, by taking away the elements, he'd be able to save the world at the same time.

The main question was how he was going to accomplish this feat…

He was soaring above the now collapsed bastion when something caught his eye.

It was Eratos' shoulder cannon, laying rejected in the rubble.

Spyro spiraled down and examined the mechanism. Apart from a few dings and scratches, the entirety of the weapon seemed functional.

Just as Spyro was about to pick up the weapon, the air stilled ominously.

He looked up at the moon and got the shock of his life.

It was supposed to be a new moon but there it was, shining belligerently in the sky. The next thing he noticed was this gigantic purplish lance headed right towards the rebellious moon.

When it struck a few seconds later, there was a massive blast of air that knocked Spyro over and stripped the leaves from the trees. The lakes dried up and the grass died around him as Spyro looked around, dumbstruck.

A loud shattering could be heard in the sky and he turned towards the moon. Its pristine white surface had shattered and the pieces that had fallen off, revealed a glowing purple underside, as if the white had been a facade all this time.

As the moon was slowly being destroyed, a purple veil drew over the nighttime sky, blinking out the stars as it travelled across the vast blackness.

As Spyro watched the veil's progress, horrified, the broken moon was now like a bright amethyst glowing in the disturbingly maroon sky.

Moments later, flaming meteors rained from its surface, landing nearby with a loud crash, throwing up dirt all over the place.

It split open like am egg and multiple Shadows leapt out, turning their beastly heads towards Spyro before charging him down.

Spyro lifted the cannon to his shoulder and took to the skies. It was particularly hard to fly for some reason, and it definitely wasn't due to the cannon; he'd carried much heavier objects without any difficulty.

_I__'__m __running __out __of __time__…_ Spyro thought to himself as he donned his armor and, with a massive burst of light, doubled his speed, making a beeline for the castle that loomed ominously in the distance, gnarled spires seemingly reaching out for the damaged moon.

_Don__'__t __worry, __Cynder, __I__'__ll __make __things __right __again__…_


	20. Chapter 20: Revelations

Cynder stormed out of the room and headed to the kids' bedroom. It was a fairly large and well-decorated room with regal furnishings and a nice view of the city out the window. 4 beds were positioned at 4 ends of the room and Neve, Ferno, Noctis and Arashi were sleeping in them peacefully.

She walked over to each of them and gave them a kiss, fearing that it would be their last before extinguishing the lights and leaving the room.

As soon as she left, she remembered that there would be one other dragon she could interrogate about Spyro's pact with Eratos. Hurrying to the Healing room, she was not the least surprised to find Bolzan asleep in a cot, severely bandaged with multiple tubes sticking into his hands.

She shook him awake roughly, making him grimace and sit up gingerly, bleary-eyed.

"Cynder? Wha-" His words were cut short when Cynder grasped him by the neck, ripping out the IV tubes that were implanted into his fragile body.

"What do you know about Spyro's pact?" She growled dangerously, pinning the injured hatchling to the wall.

Bolzan remained silent and averted his gaze from hers, as if he were ashamed of something. This gesture made Cynder's blood boil; she couldn't trust anyone now.

In a fit of rage, Cynder slammed Bolzan against the wall repeatedly, ignorant of his extreme injuries. He grunted with each impact, bones splintering loudly.

"What. Do. You. Know. About. The Pact?" She roared, increasing the frequency of the impacts before throwing Bolzan into a medical cart stationed next to his cot, sending vials and bandages flying across the room.

To her surprise, Bolzan forced himself up into a sitting position, blood pouring out of his snout. His left arm hung crazily at the side, shattered from the relentless smashing. His shallow, labored breathing told her that he'd just ruptured a lung, presumably from his broken ribs.

In spite of this, Bolzan picked up a roll of bandages and, grimacing in pain, began wrapping his reopened cuts once again, tearing as the bandages rubbed on the raw flesh.

Her heart softened for a moment and she wanted to go over and help him. Yet, something stopped her, reigniting her anger. He'd also kept that same secret from her, like Spyro…

As she was about to leave the Healing room, she heard a weak, feeble voice.

"C-Cynder…"

She turned and saw Bolzan trying to stand up; failing miserably each time he tried. Admittedly, he looked absolutely pathetic, nothing like the Godfather her children should have.

"I don't want to hear anything from you, you liar." She snapped back cold-heartedly.

"Have y-you heard… Spyro's side o-of the… story…?" He coughed, bringing up copious amounts of blood. To counteract the blood loss, Cynder noted, he'd placed a IV drip into his neck by himself. A reddish liquid ran through the tube from a red bag hanging from the cot's edge.

She remained silent, thinking about leaving Bolzan alone to die from his own slipshod bandaging.

"What do you know about him?" She replied, still not looking at the injured hatchling.

"I-I know that he d-didn't w-want to do it…" He had now successfully propped himself up against the cot's leg in a sitting position. It must have been pure agony to even breathe, let alone talk.

"B-Back then, shortly after t-they were hatched, Malefor told Spyro s-something." This caught Cynder's attention and she stood very still at the doorway.

"He s-said that they'd die i-in a few weeks… Spyro didn't believe him u-until your kids' condition w-worsened, remember?" She remembered, all right.

A week after their hatching, all of them suddenly fell gravely ill. Bolzan had told them it was some kind of prenatal illness and that they didn't have much time left. That night, Cynder lay in bed, weeping and Spyro wasn't anywhere to be found.

"He'd g-gone off to find Eratos," Bolzan stuttered as if he'd read her mind, "when he found him, t-they'd chosen to make a pact, for the sake o-of his kids…"

True enough, shortly after Spyro returned, the kids miraculously got better.

"H-However, there was a price…"

"Their elements?" Cynder whispered, turning to meet Bolzan in the eyes. He shook his head, gritting his teeth as the bones in his neck snapped softly.

"N-No, something MUCH worse… N-Nightmares…" Inside, Cynder gasped. She'd fallen victim to Malefor's nightmares once and she could attest that they were absolutely horrible.

"Why weren't they affected?" Cynder whispered.

"Spyro told me about the pact," This angered Cynder again but she held her rage in check, "I couldn't believe it myself until he told me to bond his heart with theirs."

Bolzan had recovered a little and wasn't stuttering while talking; but it was still painful for him, evidenced from the heavy breathing after each sentence.

"The whole point was that he wouldn't let this affect his kids lives, he'd wanted them to live happily. After I did it, Spyro began taking up their share of nightmares." This fact broke Cynder's heart a little. If she felt her own nightmares were unbearable, how did he feel when he took on the challenge of suffering the combined horror of _4_ of them?

"So? It doesn't matter; he still killed them with that pact…" Her voice faltered a little, losing its sharp edge for the slightest of moments.

"Maybe he did…" Bolzan had now forced himself up to his feet, limping a lot as he slowly made his way over to Cynder, now in the middle of the room.

"But if he hadn't done that, Ferno, Neve, Noctis and Arashi wouldn't have made it past the first month of their lives. Now wouldn't that have been much worse?" Halfway across the distance, Bolzan gave up and collapsed onto the floor, panting heavily and trying to get up again.

To his surprise, a pair of paws lifted him up and cradled him gently. Cynder adjusted the bandages silently, listening to him intently.

"Thanks… Anyway, Spyro wasn't exactly doing well after that. Not that you knew but, every week, he'd go deep into the woods while you were sleeping to let out his frustration and guilt. He'd get really angry and almost completely destroy the surrounding woods before collapsing, sobbing loudly. Trust me; I tailed him for the past few years…" Bolzan's voice broke abruptly and he buried his head into Cynder's chest.

"P-Please don't hate him…" He was sobbing pretty hard by now and it was a considerable chore to extricate him from his grip on Cynder's chest.

After a while, Bolzan calmed down a little before relaxing his grip, allowing Cynder to place him back in the cot.

"D-Do you hate Spyro?" He sniffled.

"… No, not anymore… Thank you." With that, she turned and left, leaving a very confused Bolzan scratching his head in his cot.

When she left the room, she'd accidently bumped into he father, who was looking up at the night sky, seemingly hypnotized.

In spite of the fact they had only just met earlier that day, she'd really bonded with him. Something about discovering a long lost father made her feel much better. She couldn't deny the family resemblance, not just in terms of their looks, but their personalities. He was really close to his family, something that made Cynder feel a little guilty about, and he had a rather cynical side to him, something Cynder also shared.

"Dad? Did you see Spyro?" Her words snapped him out of his glazed-eye state and he smiled at Cynder.

"No, I haven't. Right now, though, we've got more pressing things to worry about…" His expression turned solemn.

"The Amethyst Night?" Cynder asked experimentally. Hrunting's stunned expression told her that she'd got it right and she shrugged.

"Eh, someone told me about it." That seemed to pacify Hrunting enough and he relaxed.

"Alright. However, even if you know what it is, you've no idea what it means for the world…"

"It'll get destroyed?" Cynder suggested hopefully.

"Worse than that. The user of this spell would gain complete and total control over the entire world." Her mood dropped significantly and she ended up telling Hrunting about what Spyro did.

After listening to her story, Hrunting nodded and tenderly wiped away a tear from his daughter's face.

"Sounds to me that Spyro was doing his best for his family. Are you angry at him for doing that?" Cynder nodded.

"Well, you shouldn't be. Trust me, dear, he made the right choice." At that moment, Chrisil ran in on their conversation, extremely harried.

"Hrunting, Cynder; Spyro's gone after Eratos!" The thing with Fear dragons was that they were able to sense the fear levels of any dragon they were close to, especially so if they were a Guardian like Chrisil. Her sense was so precise that she was able to accurately pinpoint Spyro's position, which was directly next to Eratos' castle. This was enhanced by their blood relation.

"What?" Cynder immediately ran out and was about to leave when she ran into Neve, who was standing at the foot of the stairs.

"What's happening, mom?" Neve sounded freaked out and, when Cynder calmed down, she realized that the air was suddenly very asphyxiating.

"Mom? You've gotta see this!" It was Arashi, and she sounded positively terrified.

Hurrying out up the stairs with Neve in tow, she got to the walls of the castle where all of the Guardians were waiting with Arashi, Ferno and Noctis.

"What's going on?" Cynder asked as Hrunting and Chrisil pushed ahead and watched the progress of the purple lance.

"It's beginning…" Hrunting sounded out ominously.

Just then, the lance struck the moon and the surface shattered, knocking them over as a blast of air rippled across the land, the landscape dying in the process.

"W-What's going on?" Noctis stuttered as he ran into the cover of his mother's wings.

"Where's dad?" Ferno asked anxiously.

_Wherever he is, it's gotta be better than here. Look._

"Who's that?" Neve looked around for the source.

Instead, something else caught her eye.

"What's that?" She screamed as a purple meteor crashed into the city square, releasing an acrid purple smoke as shadowy beasts streamed out of the cracked stone.

"We've got to fight them off!" Terrador called out to the rest of the Guardians and they set off to fight. The remaining dragon warriors were already fighting the monsters as more meteors slammed into the city.

"Cynder, go get Spyro! Don't lose him!" Hunter called out to Cynder before jumping off into the fray, Lazarite bow already summoned. By now, the only Guardian remaining was Solaris, who caressed her daughter's face gently.

"He's right; don't lose the one you love. Go." She kissed Cynder one last time before flying into the fray.

"Mom? What's grandma talking about?" Arashi asked as Cynder hopped onto the overhang of the wall.

"Your dad's gone off to do something stupid. Again." Her voice carried no anger but her words worried Noctis.

"Are you still mad at him?" He asked carefully. Cynder paused for a moment before smiling at Noctis and drawing the 4 of them in a hug.

"Not anymore. However, if he gets himself killed, I'll be _really_ mad at him." Those words pacified them and they nodded approvingly.

"Come on, let's go help your father."


	21. Chapter 21: The Battle Of Warfang

Hunter leapt do from the walls into the heat of battle, firing volleys of arrows into the Shadows that had invaded Warfang. Ruthlessly efficient, every arrow found its mark as if it had been guided by wires.

Sensing a tightly-knit group behind him, Hunter changed the affinity of one of his 4 quivers into fire and nocked the red-tipped arrow into his bow before letting it fly, straight and true into a mob of monsters charging towards him.

In the blink of an eye, they were consumed by a massive fireball that had erupted from within their ranks, incinerating them easily. With a smirk, Hunter leapt onto the roof of a home in one bound, surveying the carnage from his elevated point of view.

Many roofs had collapsed and burned, leaving nothing but a fiery ruin. Townsfolk were fleeing the streets for the safety of their homes. Most of them didn't make it.

Once again, Hunter swapped the affinity of another quiver to air. When he placed the arrow in his bow, a scope formed on his right eye, lending him enhanced vision and reflexes.

That was the beauty of his weapon; its ability to rapidly switch elements and arrow types made it an extremely versatile weapon. Right now, his arrow was in Marksman mode, creating a scope around his eye to allow him sniper-like vision. Coupled with the affinity of air, which allowed arrows to be carried thousands of kilometers without losing speed, made him an extremely effective long-ranger when required.

He aimed down his scope and took aim at a rather large, lumbering beast that was bearing down on one of the warriors. The dragon was evidently fighting a losing battle and seemed exhausted. As the beast brought up its sword to deliver the killing blow, Hunter let loose with a single arrow.

Swirling currents of air twirled themselves along the particularly long shaft and feathers of the arrow, lending it astonishing accuracy as it embedded itself into the skull of the monster. It shuddered once, groaned, and fell to the floor, dead as a doornail.

Hunter didn't have time to check if the dragon was alright as a horde of flying beasts rose right in front of him. The swarm was massive, shaped like a larger version of the individual insects that swarmed together.

He leapt back and, once again, swapped the type and element of his 3rd quiver. He nocked the stout arrow into the bow, its tip crackling with lethal electricity. The further he drew the bowstring, the stronger the electricity grew and it began arcing to the ground, sparking wherever it hit.

The swarm, unfazed by the bluish lightning, zipped forwards towards Hunter, buzzing angrily.

When it was the right distance, Hunter let the arrow go. It burst open, revealing a net of electricity connected to the lethal shards of steel. The net flew straight through the swarm, shocking its individual minds and causing the swarm to lose its form, dissolving into a harmless mass of insects.

Hunter released another arrow, frying the straggling insects before turning his attention to the unbearably loud screech below.

Chrisil was in front of a house, shielding a pair of young children from a horde of monsters. There were easily a hundred of them, yet, Chrisil seemed unfazed.

"Cover your ears!" When they'd shielded their hearing sufficiently, she released a Siren Scream, sending 3 red conical blasts of sound that disintegrated the monsters in one fell swoop.

She looked up when she heard someone hissing on the roof. Believing it to be another enemy, she let the kids run off to their elated parents and flew up to investigate. Prepared for another attack, she was thoroughly surprised to see Hunter clutching his ears painfully, staggering about.

"Oh, it's you, Hunter… Sorry about that!" She apologised as Hunter glanced up.

"What?"

Elsewhere, Hrunting and Solaris were holding off their own attack from a herd of centaur-like beasts, armed to the teeth with swords.

"Where's Cynder?" Hrunting asked loudly over the clanging of steel as he rammed his poisoned tail into the chest of one centaur, killing it instantly.

"She went off to help Spyro! She's doing the right thing!" She added hastily before slicing the centaur right ahead with a Shadow Claw.

"Duck!" Solaris complied just as Hrunting swung his tail in a wide circle, slashing the monsters with a poisoned tail-blade.

Without another word, Hrunting leapt up as Solaris fired a hail of dark missiles from the ground, impaling the centaurs where they stood.

They continued their deadly dance, easily dispatching the hordes that came.

Directly above, Volteer and Baero zipped through the air, pursued by a squadron of wyverns, occasionally attacking their pursuers.

"Feels like old times, doesn't it?" Volteer shouted over the roaring winds as he launched another volley of electrical projectiles at the wyverns.

"Yeah, I guess. I wonder how Chrisil's doing." Even while being chased at high speeds where even a second's lapse of concentration would lead to a painful and potentially lethal landing, he still found time to think about his wife.

"Oh, don't fret. I'm sure she's alright." Volteer replied casually as if they were having a friendly chat.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Wanna do something about those wyverns?" Baero did a midair somersault and ended up behind the squadron in prime position for a pincer attack.

"Certainly, my friend!" As if they'd rehearsed this maneuver a thousand times, Volteer dived into the streets and alleyways, forcing the wyverns to chase him.

Most of them took themselves out on the low-lying bridges and walls and, by the time he flew upwards, less than half the squadron of wyverns remained.

He shot further upwards, giving Baero a clear line of sight of the pursuing wyvern. He flapped his wings once and a razor-sharp wind shear rose around him. Seeing this, the wyverns stopped their ascent and locked on to their new prey.

At the same time, Volteer launched a lightning bolt into the gale-force winds circling Baero, charging it with electricity.

As the wyverns neared, the lightning leapt out of the winds, arcing from wyvern to wyvern, decimating the flock.

As a final blow, Baero launched the wind storm towards the stragglers, destroying them easily.

Unfortunately, even after that squadron was eradicated, another was already on their tails. With a sigh, Baero and Volteer commenced the cycle once again.

In the distance, a maze of mountains had risen up out of the ground and Terrador was already leaping from spire to spire, launching massive boulders at the cougar-like beast that had been leaping after him.

"A little help here, Cyril!" He shouted to the blue dragon some distance behind.

Instead of replying with words, he fired a machinegun burst of icicles, impaling the shadow cougars to the mountains' surfaces.

_Behind you!_

A blast of electricity shocked the remaining cougars, knocking them off the mountains and sending them plummeting to their deaths on the roofs below.

Cyril caught up with Terrador, Hikari astride on his head, panting.

"That enough help for you?" Cyril panted. Hikari looked somewhat dizzy, the way he'd collapsed on Cyril's head.

_Ugh… I don't feel too good…_

"Sorry, Hikari. Anyway, where'd these mountains come from?"

"Not me, that much is certain. Must've been the Shadows." Terrador replied nonchalantly.

From his cot, Bolzan was observing their progress in the fight and, admittedly, they seemed to be fighting a losing battle.

"Maybe I should help them out…" He sat up in his cot, grimacing, and plucked at the sir with his claws. A miniscule point of light appeared and he pulled it open like a hologram. Drawing it closer so that he could use it without aggravating his injuries, he forced on his armor. It wasn't exactly complete, missing a piece here and there, but it would have to do.

A main screen flashed onto the holograph with 3 secondary screens appeared next to it. The main screen showed a simplified map of the city, criss-crossed with red and green triangles with names hovering above them.

The top-right secondary screen was a picture of a pair of crossed swords, his war controls room, while the screen directly below had a rectangle in it, his live-action camera. The bottom-right screen contained his insignia. That window was particularly special; it served as sort of a health monitor for him. The only time he used this was when he was incapacitated and unable to move so, it seemed prudent to have one.

He tapped the war room and the screen imposed itself on the map, showing multiple white triangles, his own soldiers.

They weren't particularly lasting but, while they lasted, they were ruthlessly efficient and lethal.

Dragging the triangles onto the map, he began manipulating them fluidly as he tapped the health monitor, revealing his current status. It didn't look too good so, he reluctantly admitted, he'd be unable to keep this up for long.

Outside, Hunter was surrounded by Shadows, seemingly defeated. He fired off another volley of ice arrows before collapsing, exhausted. The Shadows crept up and were about to kill him when there was a burst of darkness and a shadowy figure with 6 wings stepped regally out of the portal. It had a dragon's head and tail but no mouth and its eyes glowed with a white fire as it gazed at the Shadows, which had slunk back hesitantly.

It turned to Hunter and nodded before slashing once, slicing the Shadows with countless invisible blades that seemed to sprout from its glowing white blade.

In that brief moment of eye contact, Hunter saw Bolzan's insignia on its chest, glowing brightly. At the same time, a voice invaded his mind.

_**We'll help, but not for long…**_

Strength renewed by its appearance and slight anger at Bolzan for lying, he launched himself into battle once again.

Throughout the city, these Seraphs were assisting the defenses of Warfang as Bolzan grinned from his live-action camera.

"I can't hold for long, guys, but I'll try."

He winced as his heart squeezed painfully; he really was pushing it a little too much. His vitals had begun dropping and he was growing fatigued.

"Win the fight, guys; for Spyro, Cynder and Warfang."

With that, the screen blinked out, the seraphs dissolved, and Bolzan collapsed in the cot, breathing shallowly with a smile on his muzzle..


	22. Chapter 22: Redemption

Spyro touched down right in front of the obsidian lined double doors easily as large as a house, metal embellishments drilled onto the black wood.

By now, Spyro had already figured out how to strap the cannon on and it now sat uncomfortably on his right shoulder, slightly too big for him.

As if it had sensed his presence, the doors swung inwards, revealing a pitch-black interior. The darkness seemed to seep out the doors, extending its invisible tendrils, drawing Spyro in hypnotically.

Before he knew it, Spyro was in the castle, eyes adapting rapidly to the suffocating darkness as the double doors slammed shut behind him, cutting off his only connection to the dead world outside.

Inside, the shadows beckoned to him, forcing him deeper into its dark maw.

Twisted, gnarled roots and trees, blackened by darkness, served as pillars and walls with the occasional torch illuminating a minute patch of the corridor, unable to overcome the shadows.

Spyro gulped and proceeded deeper in, wondering whether he should turn back and leave. Pushing that thought to the back of his mind, along with his fears, he pressed on into the oblivion that lay before him.

Thankfully, the layout of the castle wasn't very confusing; most of it seemed to be a continuous corridor occasionally branching off into smaller routes. Yet, in spite of the different paths, Spyro stuck to the main corridor, his instinct guiding him through the endless path.

Every now and then, something crashed in the distance. Quickening his pace, Spyro found himself facing a magnificent door, a familiar insignia imprinted on its gnarled surface.

"He should be behind this door…" Taking a deep breath while adjusting the weapon, Spyro forced the near rusted shut door open until there was a gap just wide enough for him to squeeze through.

What he found behind the door wasn't Eratos. Rather, he found a brown-stained metal platform with multiple broken restraints on its surface. Its walls were covered in shelves which were, in turn, stacked with vials carrying unknown substances. Chemical sludge seeped down the rusted metals, long congealed into a near-solid strip.

As much as he wanted to find Eratos, this room had aroused Spyro's interest as he carefully crept around the circular room.

As he neared the metal platform, it was evident that some kind of struggle had taken place there; the metal strips forming the restraints had been ripped open, multiple claw marks marred the dull surface. The metallic smell told Spyro that the brown surface was blood, long dried up from decades of disuse and neglect.

The vials carried near unreadable labels, most of it had been broken to pieces, their contents spilled across the ground in random streaks, embedded into the wood.

Then, something caught Spyro's eye; it was a clipboard with a few sheets of paper on it, preserved by the blood of whatever poor souls were killed in this room.

Flipping through the pages, Spyro came across a page that read as follows:

**Test Subject #1**

**Name: Undefined**

**Age: Unknown**

**Tests Performed**

**Chaos Transfusion**

**Ocular Replacement**

**Results**

**Subject has responded well to the experiments. Unfortunately, he has begun displaying signs of mental instability and aggression.**

**DO NOT experiment on him alone, have at least 10 guards with you while performing tests.**

**Malefor has recommended him to be trained as a soldier for his cause.**

**Precautionary Measures**

**Titanium Restraints (4)**

**Sedatives (Maximum Strength)(10 Syringes)**

**At Least 10 Trained Guards**

**Reinforced Muzzle**

**If Necessary: Lethal Injection (1)**

**Recent Results**

**Subject has become increasingly restless and mildly psychopathic; displays prowess in use of lethal force.**

**Changes in physiology have been observed; dragon-like features emerging.**

**Subject has become far too difficult to control. Today, we shall terminate him in the name of safety.**

On the back of the clipboard, there were some writings scratched into its wooden surface, evidently the work of dragon claws.

_**I AM BOLZAN**_

_**ALL OF YOU**_

_**SHALL PAY**_

_**IN BLOOD…**_

"So, this is where they experimented on him…" Spyro remarked under his breath. From the lab reports, it was pretty evident that Bolzan had really lost it that day. It was hard to believe he'd once been this bloodthirsty, considering his friendliness towards others.

"Trust Malefor to make a place he'd once viewed as a factory as his base." He muttered under his breath, disgusted by the morbidity of Eratos' actions.

Exiting the testing chamber and heading back the way he came, Spyro spotted a pathway that seemed to lead to nowhere. How he knew this, he wasn't sure, but he felt Eratos behind the solid wooden wall.

Touching the wood, he felt a familiar presence behind the false wall, one he hated to the bone.

"Malefor…" Spyro growled before he rammed the wall with all his force, shattering the wood and revealing a magnificent throne room behind, nothing like the disturbing laboratory right behind him.

In the middle of the room was a dragon, too large to be Eratos. It was adjusting dials on a contraption, no doubt the one used to fire that lance.

The purple light illuminated its features one by one as a horribly familiar dragon turned to face Spyro.

"Hello, Spyro…" That evil voice set Spyro on edge as he felt the anger rise through his veins.

"Do you see? You cannot be rid of me; you just keep crawling back again and again…" The dragon stalked out of the luminescent light, fixing Spyro with a pair of angry red eyes. Though the eyes were different, that evil, condescending gaze was still the same.

No, this dragon was no longer Eratos. The closer it got, the more evident its features grew. Considering the fact he hadn't aged a minute since that day 13 years ago, it was pretty easy to recognize.

"Malefor… How did you return?" Spyro asked this question lightly, not expecting an answer; he already knew.

"It's all thanks to you, Spyro. See, I've figured out how to create the Ultimate Convexity; one capable of resurrecting the dead." The throne room illuminated abruptly, bathing the walls with a maroon glow.

"All I needed was a fool to act as a host and one to give me the elements. Can you guess which of the above applies to you?" Spyro ground his teeth angrily and braced himself.

"Do you truly think you can use that? Let me tell you, it won't work." Malefor crossed the large distance in a couple of shadowy bursts, cloaked in a deep purple aura, close to black.

"Give it up. You made a mistake, you killed your own offspring, and you've shattered the heart of the one dragon who truly loved you. No doubt she's already told the world what she knows. You've got no where to go now, Spyro, accept your fate and join me, or face the consequences…" In the middle of his threats, he certainly did not expect the cannon to fire or, even more shockingly, embed themselves into his chest.

Yet this didn't faze him.

"Do you see, Spyro? You're already embracing the darkness within. Come, let it burst forth and , together, we shall cleanse the world!"

"Gee, that sounds great, Malefor except…" Spyro, now in his dark form, sent huge currents of shadows into the hooks, far beyond what the weapon could handle, and Malefor's chest promptly exploded.

"I'd rather take my chances with being a hermit than give in to you." The explosion rippled through the chains, causing the weapon itself to self-destruct. Thankfully, Spyro had already ditched the weapon and it detonated safely a couple of meters away.

Laughing, Malefor staggered back to his paws with an evil glint in his eyes.

Without any warning, he rushed Spyro, pinning him against the wall, throttling him painfully.

"Fool… Do you think you can defeat me? I am like a god and you, a mortal. Stop living in your own delusions, Spyro, there's no way you'll beat me." His jaws tightened around Spyro's throat and, to his surprise, Spyro actually laughed. It was nary a squeak but there was an unmistakable, arrogant tone within.

"If being a Purple dragon equals being a god then, I think you've forgotten one thing, Malefor…" A small mauve flame had begun burning at Spyro's chest, right at where his heart was.

The flames spread, enveloping him in a blazing inferno that took Malefor by surprise, forcing him to drop Spyro.

"I'm a Purple dragon too." The flames now covered his body much like Malefor's, forming a bright coat of flames.

Malefor roared and slammed into Spyro and they were engaged in a brutal close-range fight with burning fangs and claws tearing at one another. Spyro had grown considerably since their last battle and it was actually smarter to engage Malefor in close-ranged combat as opposed to using elements; it would be prudent to prevent Malefor from using the Ultimate Convexity for as long as possible.

And so the brutal brawl raged on, each dragon trading blows with one another, flames that had enveloped their body instantaneously repairing the torn tissue.

Eventually, they rammed into the device that was powering the Amethyst Moon, disrupting the precisely tuned mechanisms that stabilized the moon.

The entire machine began to rumble ominously, distracting Spyro and Malefor for a brief moment before it blew up.

They were instantly wrapped in darkness, far darker than anything Spyro had ever seen. Malefor, however, had seen this only one other time, in the books he'd read long ago.

"The Cleansing has begun…" He mouthed, smiling as the darkness enveloped the two dragons.

"Not if I have anything to say about it…" With that, Spyro breathed out the Ultimate Convexity unknowingly.

It struck Malefor in the back and he began crystallizing, cursing as the crystals spread from his back to his tail, limbs and eventually, his head.

In spite of this, he smiled and shot out a paw, now transformed into a massive flaming hook, and impaled Spyro on it before pulling Spyro close.

"If I'm leaving, so are you…" No matter what Spyro did, the hook remained stuck in his chest, the pain excruciating as he cried out.

Simultaneously, the darkness around them began to dissipate, drawn towards the 2 forces that were conflicting with one another.

As soon as they touched the purple crystals, the orbs and tendrils crystallized as well, forming a massive crystalline structure encompassing Spyro, Malefor and the ruined machine.

"Who's the real winner, Spyro…?" Those were Malefor's last words before the crystal took over, sealing his fate.

In his last moments of consciousness, Spyro saw 5 familiar figures running in through the ruined secret entrance and he smiled.

"Cynder… I'm sorry… This is my… Apology…" In his final breath, 4 glowing glyphs left his muzzle and made their way into the smaller figures standing nearby.

There was a massive plume of flames, a freezing blast of wind, a magnificent tornado and a pillar of darkness when they entered and Spyro knew he'd done what he'd set out to do.

"I guess this is my last goodbye…" With that, the crystals encased him, sealing the wrath and the savior in the same monument.

* * *

><p>Cynder ran in just in time to see Spyro in the process of crystallization and, together with Ferno, Neve, Noctis and Arashi, ran over to try and save him.<p>

Unfortunately, they were moments too late as Spyro regarded them one last time, apologizing for his actions.

She screamed for him not to leave but she knew he couldn't hear her yet she continued.

When they saw their father being encased in crystals, they didn't care about their elements: all they wanted was their father back so and they tried to call to him, wanting him to return as they tried breaking the crystals to no avail.

* * *

><p>In the encompassing darkness, Spyro felt more content and at peace than he'd ever been as he drifted through oblivion, unaware of his destination and not caring at the same time, knowing he'd set things right.<p> 


	23. Chapter 23: Saviour Or Fool?

Abruptly, Spyro's descent into oblivion came to a stop, ending with him falling face-first onto a familiar stone surface.

Glancing around, he found himself in a drab and heavily damaged court with concentric rings of seats, all nearly destroyed, surrounding a throne of swords.

On the throne lay was a dark maroon dragon whom Spyro hadn't seen for ages and, right now, he was regaling (mocking?) Spyro with a pitying glance.

"I thought you'd matured since we last met, Spyro. Evidently you haven't grown up at all…"

"Shut up, Lazarus! I saved the world, isn't that good enough?" Spyro snapped back indignantly.

Instead of replying, Lazarus got up and walked down the steps towards Spyro. Even though Spyro had grown considerably, he still felt intimidated by Lazarus, now standing directly in front of him.

"Really? So you've saved the world, like that's any massive accomplishment." Lazarus snorted, angering Spyro. Why was he being so hard on him?

"Come on, what did I do wrong THIS time? _I_ saved the world; _I_ got rid of Malefor; _I_made sure—"

"At what cost, Spyro?" Lazarus whispered ominously, silencing Spyro.

"Have you ever thought about how Cynder would feel? How your children would grieve?" Lazarus' words confused Spyro somewhat.

"B-But, Cynder hates me and I saved them; isn't that enough?" Spyro stuttered.

"Have you ever thought that she'd already forgiven you?" Lazarus relaxed and nodded to the hallway to the right.

"Why don't you head on down there?"

Spyro walked down the hallway and, after a while, realized the change in surroundings. The last time he'd met Lazarus, they weren't in some sort of ruins, and what was he doing here?

Even though he'd never seen this teal dragon before, something caught his eye, namely the massive hourglass dead in the middle of the room.

"Um, are you the Chronicler?" Spyro asked uncertainly as he neared the teal dragon.

"You could say that, Spyro." The teal dragon turned and he immediately recognized him.

"Ignitus! Why're you teal?" Though he knew Ignitus was the Chronicler, Spyro had never seen him actually doing his job as the Chronicler and, well, the teal coloration looked silly on him.

"Focus, Spyro; we have more important things on hand right now." Ignitus clearly did not want to chat.

"What you did certainly was commendable but… well, why don't you see it for yourself?" The surface of the hourglass shattered, spilling sand from the rent.

Instead of simply scattering on the floor, the sand hung in midair, swirling towards Spyro slowly, all the while growing brighter.

"Don't fight it, Spyro. Trust me; it'll justify what I'm going to do next…" Hearing Ignitus' words, Spyro calmed down and let the shining particles coat his body as the Chronicler faded from sight along with the study.

When he opened his eyes again, Spyro found himself back in Malefor's castle, in the room where he'd finished off Malefor for good.

Still trapped in the crystal, Spyro was pleasantly surprised when he phased out of the translucent prison onto the cold, hard floor.

Almost immediately, he heard some sobbing coming from the other side of the crystal and, as he circled the crystal, the sobbing grew louder, interspersed with loud thuds and the sound of claws raking the crystal.

On the other side, Cynder was attacking the crystal prison that held Spyro, paws bloodied from the repeated strikes.

"Cynder!" Spyro ran over, hoping to stop her from hurting herself anymore as he tried to embrace her.

To his surprise, Spyro simply ran straight through Cynder as if she were made of thin air.

_Wait, __it__'__s __not __her__… __It__'__s __me!_ Once again, he tried to place a comforting paw on Cynder's back, which simply faded through her body. He tried to nuzzle her and merely found himself spread-eagled in the floor.

Spyro got up, panting, as he panned the room for his kids. Just when he caught sight of them, the room faded away, dissolving into shadows.

Once again, Spyro awoke in the study with Ignitus watching the hourglass, miraculously repaired.

"So, does that make you feel better about saving the world?" Spyro started when Lazarus walked into the Chronicler's study, looking more caring than a few minutes ago.

When Spyro remained silent, he walked over and nudged Spyro gently with his snout.

"I'm fine, Lazarus…" He got up and gazed blankly at Ignitus and Lazarus.

Slowly, Spyro made his way over to the hourglass and, staring at his reflection in the pristine surface, began ramming his head against the glass.

"Spyro!" Ignitus pulled him off the hourglass where a minute crack had formed. Gradually, fibers stringed the crack together, leaving the surface clean and undamaged.

"Why'd you show me that?" Spyro roared back at Ignitus, who was restraining him with his tail around Spyro's neck.

"Why the agitation, Spyro? Feeling the guilt already?" Lazarus' words cut deep into Spyro's heart and he stopped struggling before slumping to the ground.

"Lazarus did not mean to belittle your accomplishment, Spyro; he just wants you to think…" Ignitus walked over to the book of deaths, leaving Spyro with Lazarus.

"I want you to answer these questions. First, does saving the world mean a lot to you?" Lazarus was now seated next to Spyro, staring him right in the eyes.

"Yes, it does." Spyro replied flatly yet, deep inside, he knew this wasn't true.

"Alright then. Next, does your family mean a lot to you as well?" Spyro remained silent, brooding in his guilt.

"I'll take that as a yes. So, which is more important? Are you a savior?" Lazarus got up and turned towards the hourglass, looking into the falling sand.

"Or a fool?"

With that, Lazarus left Spyro alone with his thoughts while Ignitus flipped through the book slowly, listening intently to their conversation.

Carrying the book in his jaws, Ignitus walked over to Spyro and placed the book in front of the moody dragon.

"What?" Spyro growled irritably as Ignitus flipped the pages to Spyro's name.

"I've thought about it and I think you deserve a second chance, as does Cynder, Neve, Noctis, Ferno and Arashi." Interestingly, neither Eratos nor Malefor's name appeared in the book which, considering their so called deaths were around the same time as Spyro's, was particularly peculiar.

"What are you showing me this for? I can't go back again…" Spyro replied glumly as he gazed at his name in the book as if it were a chain, holding him back from reuniting with Cynder.

"Well, I guess you'll be the first exception to that rule." Ignitus rose and slashed the page with Spyro's name with his claws.

Almost immediately, the page burned white and the flames engulfed Ignitus' forepaw, all the way up to his shoulder.

"Ignitus! What are you doing?" Spyro tried to put out the flames on Ignitus' arm but he was held back by Ignitus' tail.

"I'm giving you a second chance. Use it well…" Spyro watched in horror as the flames burned brightly on Ignitus' forepaw. Also, he noticed that he was covered in a light glow that grew brighter.

When the glow was blindingly bright, his body began disintegrating into white feathers, starting with his tail.

Just before his entire body vanished, Spyro uttered an apology towards Ignitus for making him, presumably, lose a limb.

"Don't apologise to me; save your apologies for your family. They need you the most…" With that, Spyro vanished, leaving Ignitus and his burning paw in the study.

Back in the castle, Cynder and her kids had fallen asleep beneath Spyro's crystal, dreaming of his return.

Cynder was the first to stir as a bight glow shone above her head. She looked up, careful not to wake her slumbering children, to find Spyro still encased in the crystal.

She blamed it on a trick of the eye and fell back asleep, only to be awakened by a feather landing gently on her forehead.

This time, the glow was much brighter and Cynder stared, dumbfounded, at the shining crystal.

Slowly, hairline cracks appeared on the crystal's surface in Spyro's part of the crystal which slowly enlarged, spreading throughout the crystal. Interestingly, the cracks didn't seem to reach the part that contained Malefor's body, as if it were blocked by an invisible wall.

By now, the rest of them had awoken and were watching the brilliant glow that had enveloped Spyro.

"What's happening?" Ferno asked out of curiosity.

"I hope it's what I think it is…" Cynder replied softly.

The glow grew blindingly bright and they had to avert their gaze from the crystal for fear of being blinded. The falling feathers grew into a swirling storm, filling the air with white as the crystals that had fallen off burst into feathers.

Slowly, the glow dimmed and Cynder could finally look at the crystal only, there wasn't any crystal remaining around Spyro.

Spyro's eyes opened bleakly and, when he saw them, he broke into a smile as Noctis tackled into his belly.

"It's alright; I'll never leave you again. Ever." The last word was directed towards Cynder as he walked over calmly with Noctis on his back as Ferno and Neve clamored for his attention while Arashi climbed onto his head, bracing herself on his shoulders.

"You look like a Christmas tree." Cynder remarked light-heartedly as Spyro let Arashi and Noctis down before they kissed and nuzzled one another.

"How're your paws?" Spyro held one of her bloodied paws in his.

"How'd you know?"

He smiled.

"Just a hunch."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Epilogue<strong>_

Back in the ruins, Ignitus was watching their reunion and the eventual collapse of the castle, burying Malefor for good, all the while aware of his now missing arm.

Lazarus walked in shortly after and remarked about Ignitus' paw, asking whether it was worth it.

"That'll depend on what he does…" Ignitus replied nonchalantly.

Lazarus nodded silently and placed a gemstone on the ground near Ignitus, who regarded it with some degree of curiosity.

"Mind you, we'll have to choose a Champion soon…" Lazarus added, aware of the distortion of his surroundings.

"True enough. But, can we strike Spyro off the list of potential candidates?" Ignitus replied, walking over to the shimmering gem Lazarus had left on the ground.

"I suppose you're right. However, that leaves us with only one other choice…" Lazarus turned back to the court, towards the gateway deep within the opposite corridor.

"He'll have to do. Besides; I trust him enough." Ignitus touched the gem with his good paw and it shone bright crimson.

"Yeah, I believe he'll fit the bill as well." Lazarus chuckled as the gem assimilated itself with Ignitus.

"The worlds are in danger; Bahamut and Hecaton have already chosen their Champion, no thanks to the Amethyst Moon." The gem had vanished and a grey metal had begun forming in place of Ignitus' lost limb, growing more and more limb-like with every passing second.

"Yes, it will be a problem to both worlds for a while." Lazarus watched the metal knit itself with Ignitus' ethereal flesh and bones.

"'A while'? Ignitus, it's already begun." He gestured to his surroundings.

"They'll be the last wall between absolute chaos and everlasting peace." The sounds of battle rang outside the ruins.

Ignitus laughed mirthlessly.

"Yes: The Distortion has begun."

* * *

><p><strong>Hey, guys!<strong>

**Well, this is more or less the end of Book II but obviously, it's not over yet...**

**(Also, if you're going to read the 3rd book, it'll be under crossover fanfiction w/ Final Fantasy XIII.)**

**-Bolzan**


End file.
